Name: Royal Challengers Bangalore- Captain: Virat Kohli
- Head Coach: Simon Katich
- Home Ground: M Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bengaluru
- Squad members: 21
- Best result: Final in IPL 2009, 2011, 2016
Every year, they begin with their eyes on the trophy. They’ve come close on a few occasions and made the final thrice, but they’ve lost it to a Hyderabad franchise twice, and to CSK once. This year, they’ll start with the same goals but what we’ve noticed is the team has a strong batting order, but a bowling that has always let them down in crucial moments. They’ve lost countless games even after scoring 180+ batting first!
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They retained 13 players, which is the second lowest in the Indian Premier League (IPL) for this season. They of course retained captain Virat Kohli and South Africa’s AB de Villiers, the two of whom will be the backbone of the batting order. However, we need more RCB batsmen to step up in IPL 2020 if they want to come anywhere close to winning any honours. Their massive reliance on the duo has caused their downfall in recent years.
That’s where someone like Moeen Ali will be very useful to this team, the only other overseas player apart from ABD to be retained. With the likes of Southee and de Grandhomme in the side last couple of seasons, Moeen hasn’t had too many chances but he scored 2 fifties in 11 games in IPL 2019. Fans should start relying more on Moeen, who is a floater in the batting order and someone who can spin it quite a bit too!
With Moeen in the side, Parthiv Patel being retained and Aaron Finch purchased for INR 4.4 Crore, we have plenty of opening batsmen options, which means King Kohli batting at #3 in IPL 2020 is a high possibility. Among the locals, watch out for Devdutt Padikkal, one of the few players retained and his contract price of INR 20 Lakh is an absolute steal as the 19-year old has been plundering runs in the domestic circuit.
God knows, they may even bring him in to open the innings in place of Parthiv Patel, as the latter is surely past his peak. Padikkal scored 649 runs in 10 games in Ranji Trophy 2019/20 and in the 2019/20 Vijay Hazare Trophy, 609 runs in 11 games, while also amassing 580 runs in 12 games in the recent Syed Mushtaq Ali trophy, topping the charts in both the two limited-overs tournaments.
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Those numbers are staggering and he’s very likely to make the first-choice team. However, their bowling is the weaker suit and here’s where changes are required. They’ve brought in Chris Morris, Dale Steyn, Kane Richardson and Isuru Udana, all four overseas bowling options from the IPL 2020 auction. Morris and Udana are favourites to make the first team, but I think they need to back their local bowlers more.
Navdeep Saini is one of the best young bowling talents in India and Umesh Yadav is one of India’s leading national side bowlers right now, though they only picked up 11 and 8 wickets respectively in IPL 2019. If the coaching staff can manage to get these two into some rhythm, the cup goals are certainly on for RCB in IPL 2020! Let’s not forget Yuzvendra Chahal who has 100 IPL wickets in 84 games!
ROYAL CHALLENGERS BANGALORE SQUAD FOR IPL 2020: AB de Villiers, Gurkeerat Singh Mann, Devdutt Padikkal, Aaron Finch, Mohammed Siraj, Yuzvendra Chahal, Umesh Yadav, Navdeep Saini,
Kane Richardson, Adam Zampa, Isuru Udana, Dale Steyn, Moeen Ali, Pawan Negi, Washington Sundar, Shivam Dube, Chris Morris, Pavan Deshpande, Parthiv Patel, Joshua Philippe, Shahbaz Ahmed, Virat Kohli (C).
Something seems to be coming their way this year. Maybe it could be the change of personnel with Simon Katich appointed as Head Coach, who has previously worked with the Kolkata franchise in the IPL. Maybe it could be the new team logo that brings them luck. New decade, new RCB? Stay tuned to ReadScoops.com for updates on this popular franchise and more IPL team previews in the days to come…
