Royal Challengers Bangalore, the Indian Premier League's constant under-performers, will hope for a change of fortunes going into the new season.
RCB strengthened their squad with the inclusion of big-hitting Aussie all-rounder Glenn Maxwell. Maxi is expected to play the perfect foil to Virat Kohli, A B de Villiers and Devdutt Paddikal, who was among RCB's big scorers last season.
Kohli, the IPL's highest scorer with 5,878 runs, is set to open the innings to give his team the early momentum. Partnering Kohli will be the highly talented Padikkal after he makes a full recovery from COVID-19.
Young wicket-keeper-batsman Mohammad Azharuddeen, who had a staggering strike rate of 194.54 in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy, and New Zealand's Finn Allen are other attacking options at the top.
De Villiers and Maxwell add fire-power to the middle-order while Sachin Baby, the experienced Daniel Christian and Washington Sundar add to the RCB batting depth.
Another uncapped player along with Azharuddeen is Suyash Prabudessai, who could light up the tourney with his unconventional batting.
Yuzvendra Chahal will lead the RCB attack and weave a web around rival batsmen along with fellow leggie Adam Zampa. Mohammad Siraj, who had a good IPL 2020, will lead the RCB pacers with Naveep Saini and Australian Kane Richardson.
Kohli feels optimistic about his team's chances this season. We'll have to just wait and watch.
Squad:
| Age | Bats | Bowls | Role | IPL games | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Virat Kohli | 32 | Right-handed | Right-arm medium | Captain/batsman | 192 |
| Sachin Baby | 32 | Left-handed | Right-arm off-break | Batsman | 18 |
| Devdutt Padikkal | 20 | Left-handed | Right-arm off-break | Batsman | 15 |
| Rajat Patidar | 27 | Right-handed | Right-arm off-break | Batsman | 0 |
| Suyash Prabhudessai | 23 | Right-handed | Right-arm medium | Batsman | 0 |
| A B de Villiers | 37 | Right-handed | Right-arm medium | Wicket-keeper | 169 |
| Finn Allen | 21 | Right-handed | Wicket-keeper | 0 | |
| Srikar Bharat | 27 | Right-handed | Wicket-keeper | 0 | |
| Mohammed Azharuddeen | 27 | Right-handed | Wicket-keeper | 0 | |
| Glenn Maxwell | 32 | Right-handed | Right-arm off-break | All-rounder | 82 |
| Daniel Christian | 37 | Right-handed | Right-arm fast-medium | All-rounder | 40 |
| Daniel Sams | 23 | Right-handed | Left-arm fast-medium | All-rounder | 3 |
| Pavan Deshpande | 31 | Left-handed | Right-arm off-break | All-rounder | 0 |
| Harshal Patel | 26 | Left-handed | Right-arm fast-medium | Bowler | 48 |
| Mohammed Siraj | 27 | Right-handed | Right-arm fast-medium | Bowler | 35 |
| Navdeep Saini | 27 | Right-handed | Right-arm fast-medium | Bowler | 26 |
| Kane Richardson | 30 | Right-handed | Right-arm fast-medium | Bowler | 14 |
| Kyle Jamieson | 26 | Right-handed | Right-arm fast-medium | Bowler | 0 |
| Yuzvendra Chahal | 30 | Right-handed | Right-arm leg-break | Bowler | 99 |
| Washington Sundar | 21 | Left-handed | Right-arm off-break | Bowler | 36 |
| Adam Zampa | 29 | Right-handed | Right-arm leg-break | Bowler | 14 |
| Shahbaz Ahmed | 26 | Left-handed | Left-arm spin | Bowler | 0 |
Note: The players in bold are overseas players
Daniel Sams and Harshal Patel were traded from the Delhi Capitals in the transfer window before the IPL 2021 auction.
Finn Allen came IN as a replacement for Josh Phillippe who withdrew from IPL 2021.
Players bought at this year's IPL auction:
Sachin Baby
Rajat Patidar
Suyash Prabhudessai
Srikar Bharat
Mohammed Azharuddeen
Glenn Maxwell
Daniel Christian
Kyle Jamieson
Overall win-loss record in IPL:
| Played | Won | Lost | No Result | Win% | W/L ratio |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 196 | 91 | 101 | 4 | 46.43 | 0.90 |
Note: The win/loss tally includes results in Super Over after a tie
Best finish in IPL:
Runner-up in 2009, 2011 and 2016
How they fared in each edition:
| Year | Position |
|---|---|
| 2008 | 7th |
| 2009 | 2nd |
| 2010 | 3rd |
| 2011 | 2nd |
| 2012 | 5th |
| 2013 | 5th |
| 2014 | 7th |
| 2015 | 3rd |
| 2016 | 2nd |
| 2017 | 8th |
| 2018 | 6th |
| 2019 | 8th |
| 2020 | 4th |
Top batsmen:
| Mts | Runs | Highest Score | Average | Strike Rate | 100 | 50 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| V Kohli | 192 | 5878 | 113 | 38.16 | 130.73 | 5 | 39 |
| A B de Villiers | 141 | 4178 | 133* | 42.20 | 159.46 | 2 | 35 |
| C H Gayle | 85 | 3163 | 175* | 43.32 | 152.72 | 5 | 19 |
| J H Kallis | 42 | 1132 | 89* | 31.44 | 112.19 | 0 | 10 |
| R Dravid | 43 | 898 | 75* | 26.41 | 122.84 | 0 | 4 |
| P A Patel | 32 | 731 | 67 | 25.20 | 130.07 | 0 | 4 |
| Mandeep Singh | 40 | 597 | 54* | 22.11 | 128.94 | 0 | 2 |
| T M Dilshan | 25 | 587 | 76* | 27.95 | 109.92 | 0 | 5 |
| R V Uthappa | 31 | 549 | 68* | 23.86 | 141.49 | 0 | 4 |
| L R P L Taylor | 22 | 517 | 81* | 30.41 | 142.03 | 0 | 2 |
Top bowlers:
| Mts | Wickets | Average | Runs Per Over | Best | 4W | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Y S Chahal | 98 | 121 | 22.22 | 7.66 | 4-25 | 2 |
| R Vinay Kumar | 64 | 72 | 25.30 | 8.37 | 4-40 | 1 |
| Z Khan | 44 | 49 | 26.77 | 7.85 | 4-17 | 1 |
| S Aravind | 38 | 45 | 23.08 | 8.20 | 4-14 | 2 |
| A Kumble | 42 | 45 | 23.51 | 6.57 | 5-5 | 3 |
| P Kumar | 38 | 34 | 33.52 | 8.18 | 3-18 | 0 |
| M A Starc | 27 | 34 | 20.38 | 7.16 | 4-15 | 1 |
| H V Patel | 36 | 34 | 28.55 | 8.53 | 3-43 | 0 |
| D W Steyn | 33 | 32 | 28.81 | 7.33 | 3-18 | 0 |
| M Siraj | 29 | 29 | 30.06 | 9.05 | 3-8 | 0 |
Feature Presentation: Aslam Hunani/Rediff.com
