Overview : The Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) have played the finals of the IPL on three occasions but have never crossed the last hurdle. They finished 8th last season and will be looking to put up a better performance this time around.
Captain : Virat Kohli
Support Staff : Simon Katich (head coach), Mike Hesson (Team director), Sridharan Sriram (batting and spin bowling coach), Adam Griffith (Fast bowling coach).
Squad :-
Strengths : Like every season, they have a gun batting line-up and with the addition of Finch who also captains Australia in the limited overs format and Aussie talent Joshua Philippe, their top order has been strengthened to the maximum. Virat Kohli, the best batsman in the world right now and De Villiers will play a crucial role as batsmen in their team’s success. To add to that, Moeen Ali, Dube and Chris Morris can play with a good strike-rate down the order.
Weaknesses : Their death bowling has suffered over the years and their major focus will remain on it. Yadav and Siraj have proven to be uneconomical in the past and with Steyn’s uncertainty related to his fitness they only have Morris to depend on and Saini to an extent.
Player to watch out for :
Devdutt Padikkal : The karnataka opener became the first player to cross 1000 runs in the 2019-20 domestic season. He was the highest run scorer for his side across all formats in the same season as well as the overall highest run-getter in the T20 and 50-over competition.
Trivia : Padikkal scored the most number of sixes (33) in the 2019-20 Syed Mushtaq Ali trophy.
Team combination and probable XI :
According to a few rumours, De Villiers is willing to play as a wicketkeeper batsman for RCB. He has been reluctant to play that role in the past. This could mean that Parthiv, who also opened the innings last season might have to sit out.
1. Finch 2. Padikkal/Parthiv (wk) 3. Virat 4. De Villiers (wk) 5. Ali 6. Dube 7. Morris 8. Sundar 9. U Yadav 10. Saini 11. Chahal
Predicted finish : Virat said that his team has never felt this calm going into a season before and the fan sentiment believes that this IPL could be different for them. It would be a gamble to say that they’d end up in the top 4. But the gut feeling says so! (Deep down the entire nation wants Kohli to win atleast some trophy.)
Stats Courtesy : ESPNcricinfo
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Kanishk Sharma 