Royal Challengers Bangalore Overview
RCB had a mixed 2018 IPL season, where they missed the playoff position by just 2 points. The team management decided to stick with the more or less with the same combination, releasing only 5 players.
Having lost two key players in Brendon McCullum and Corey Anderson, RCB needed a couple of explosive batsmen to complement Virat Kohli and AB de Villiers in the 2019 IPL Auctions. And they did indeed achieve that in the form of Shimron Hetmyer and big-hitting all-rounder Shivam Dube, both bought at a combined cost of ₹ 9.2 crores. The latter was bought for an eye-popping ₹ 5 crores. It remains to be seen whether the talented cricketer is worth the kind of investment.
To replace the outgoing South African batsman – wicketkeeper Quinton de Kock, Challengers brought his fellow compatriot Heinrich Klaasen for a discounted rate of ₹50 lakhs as compared the ₹ 2.8 crores they paid for de Kock last time out.
The theme for RCB, as was for most of the other franchises, was to secure young talents, the ones who would take the centre stage in the future. These included Karnataka opener Devdutt Padikkal (₹ 20 lakhs), teenaged leg-spinner Prayas Barman (₹ 1.5 crores), Delhi batsman Himmat Singh (₹ 65 lakhs), and Akshdeep Nath (₹ 3.6 crores).
Although RCB deserves credit for displaying so much trust on the youngsters, they paid little heed to address their death bowling woes. The only specialist they have at the moment – Nathan Coulter-Nile could leave early if he’s picked up for the national team for the Pakistan series. It will be interesting to see if the trio of Umesh Yadav, Tim Southee and Marcus Stoinis handle this responsibility once again.
Squad Strength: 24
Players bought in the auction: 9
Purse Unspent: Rs 1.8 Crore
RCB Squad
-- Advertisement --Batsmen | Allrounders | Spinners | Pacers |
Himmat Singh* | A Nath* | Y Chahal | N Coulter-Nile |
H Klaasen (wk)* | P Barman* | Mohammed Siraj | |
D Padikkal* | Milind Kumar* | Tim Southee | |
Shimron Hetmyer* | Shivam Dubey* | Umesh Yadav | |
Virat Kohli | Gurkeerat Singh* | Navdeep Saini | |
AB de Villiers | W Sundar | Kulwant Khejroliya | |
Parthiv Patel (wk) | Pawan Negi | ||
Moeen Ali | |||
C de Grandhomme | |||
Marcus Stoinis |
* represents players bought by Royal Challengers Bangalore
Possible Starting XI: V Kohli, AB de Villiers, Parthiv Patel, Shimron Hetmyer, Pawan Negi, Marcus Stoinis, Y Chahal, Umesh Yadav, Tim Southee,Mohammed Siraj.
Media Reaction
RCB ian's??? pic.twitter.com/Opa0gGUGbf
— ®VΠ (@naveenkumarrv) December 20, 2018
We are so happy with shimron hetmyer in RCB pic.twitter.com/0Hikmm3cGw
— NAME IS CHARAN (@charan_name) December 18, 2018
In every year IPL auction.. after buying a player.. RCB team management be like.. pic.twitter.com/acapTmE6Jr
— Kartik Raj P (@KartikRajP2) December 19, 2018
2018: #RCB didn't qualify for play offs#IPL2019 pic.twitter.com/jle9XQrVdK
— Rishabh Srivastava (@AskRishabh) December 19, 2018
Just imagine ??
First time RCB didn't choke in auction ☺#IPLAuction pic.twitter.com/2i0kjLyHzz
— Thug Cinema (@ThugCinema) December 18, 2018