Inspite of having some of the greatest cricketing talent at their disposal, Royal Challengers Bangalore have somehow managed to lose the plot every single year. Kohli does not exude the same confidence, as a captain, in an RCB jersey, as he does in the Indian one(with Dhoni in the side).
Having never won the title, Kohli and co. would be eager to lay their hands on the trophy this year.
Although the depth of all-rounders that RCB enjoyed the last year will be missing, RCB have made some very solid batting additions to their squad this year with Stoinis, Klaasen and Hetmyer joining their ranks.
Team after 2019 Player Auction
In:- Marcus Stoinis(traded), Himmat Singh, Heinrich Klaasen, D Padikkal, Shimron Hetmyer, Akshdeep Nath, P Barman, Milind Kumar, Shivam Dube, Gurkeerat Singh
Out:- Quinton de Kock, Mandeep Singh, Brendon McCullum, Chris Woakes, Corey Anderson, Sarfaraz Khan
Royal Challengers Bangalore – 2019 Squad
Strengths
Virat has been in the form of his life while ABD has been playing T20 leagues across the globe in the past year or so. While these two have been RCB’s old guard, they now have the highly explosive Hetmyer in the middle order as well. Hetmyer has also had an exceptional one year in international cricket. T20 records not being that great, he still has got great potential. The troika of Kohli, ABD and Hetmyer(if played consistently) should give some shivers to a lot of bowling sides.
Weakness
The X-factor, with regards to the bowling attack, is still missing. The attack looks pretty average and inexperienced barring the Indian duo of Yadav and Chahal. Royal Challengers Bangalore, over the years, have lost a huge number of matches owing to their weakness in bowling and that trend looks like continuing this term as well.
With Royal Challengers Bangalore, in the last few seasons, there have been times when they have started the league with the wrong international players. Halfway past the league stage, they tend to do a complete overhaul of their strategies and then somehow manage to get the right combination of players. They will need to take care so as to not repeat their past mistakes.
Predicted Starting XI
Marcus Stoinis
Parthiv Patel
Virat Kohli
AB de Villiers
Shimron Hetmyer
Shivam Dube
Washington Sundar
Nathan Coulter-Nile
Umesh Yadav
Kulwant Khejroliya/Mohammad Siraj
Yuzvendra Chahal
Royal Challengers Bangalore – IPL Schedule
Although the squad looks quite formidable, lack of quality bowling options once again looks like RCB’s undoing.
Expected position in the league table: Bottom half