ROYAL CHALLENGERS BANGALORE

This is one of my favorite teams this year. Royal Challengers Bangalore is full of flamboyance. Team had the worst first season. Royal Challengers Bangalore has always been among the top contenders to lift the trophy. Team has reached to the finals on two occasions (2010 and 2011). They failed on both and are still waiting to win their maiden IPL trophy. From the very beginning Royal Challengers Bangalore has been relying on big names. They have never compromised on spending extra money to buy big players. Even in the past, they had game changers like Pietersen, Steyn, Dilshan, Zaheer and Kallis in the team. Chris Gayle emerged as the spark of the team. He played many match-winning knocks, including four hundreds.

Royal Challengers Bangalore have always been one of the strongest batting line ups in the IPL. At IPL-7 auction they retained their most destructive batsmen Chris Gayle, AB de Villers and Virat Kohli. Royal Challengers Bangalore have also bought another power packed batsman Yuvraj Singh at the highest price of Rs 14 crore. Kohli and AB are in the form of their life. With Yuvi and Gayle this team has almost invincible batting lineup. Apart from their batting this time they have tried to balance out. Royal Challengers Bangalore have bought Ravi Rampaul, Albie Morkel, Mitchell Starc and Ashok Dinda to strengthen their bowling department. Team has two quality all-rounders like Yuvraj and Morkel.

Royal Challengers Bangalore’s USP is their match winners. All are capable enough to turn the game on its head single handedly. Team has a great chance to lift the title this year. It was shocking that they didn’t buy any player from Karnataka. Who surprised all the cricket pundits this year. It would be interesting to see how Virat Kohli handle Royal Challengers Bangalore this time. Do they manage to lift the IPL trophy or they have to wait for one more season.

Number of Players: 21 (Indian 14, overseas 7)

Cost: INR 60 crore.

Team Structure:

Batsmen:

• Virat Kohli (retained).
• Chris Gayle (retained).
• Nic Maddinson (INR 50 lakh).
• Vijay Zol (INR 30 lakh).
• Tanmay Mishra (INR 10 lakh).

All-rounder:

• Yuvraj Singh (INR 14 crore).
• Albie Morkel (INR 2.4 crore).
• Yuzvendra Chahal (INR 10 lakh).

Wicketkeeper-batsmen:

• AB de Villiers (retained).
• Parthiv Patel (INR 1.4 crore).
• Yogesh Takawale (INR 10 lakh).

Spinners:

• Muttiah Muralitharan (INR 1 crore).
• Shadab Jakati (INR 20 lakh).

Fast bowlers:

• Mitchell Starc (INR 5 crore).
• Varun Aaron (INR 2 crore).
• Ashok Dinda (INR 1.5 crore).
• Ravi Rampaul (INR 90 lakh).
• Harshal Patel (INR 40 lakh).
• Abu Nechim (INR 30 lakh).
• Sachin Rana (INR 20 lakh).
• Sandeep Warrier (INR 10 lakh).

Strengths:

• One of the most powerful batting lineups in the tournament.
• List of match winners in the team.

Weaknesses:

• Lack the spark in fast bowling.
• Do not have any player from Karnataka (winning team of all the 3 domestic trophies this season).

Royal Challengers Bangalore Probable playing XI: Chris Gayle, Parthiv Patel, Virat Kohli, Yuvraj Singh, AB de Villiers, Vijay Zol, Albie Morkel, Mitchell Starc, Yuzvendra Chahal, Varun Aaron, Ashok Dinda.