IPL 2020 Auction Strategy for Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB)

Overseas players, the key focus area for RCB as we deep-dive into their strategy for IPL 2020 Auction. 

The official tag holder for “Ee Sala Cup Namde”, the Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) have made some big announcements before the IPL 2020 Auction. Not only have they retained the least number of players, but they also retained the least number of overseas players.

The retained list of two overseas players includes Mr. 360, Ab de Villiers and the attacking all-rounder, Moeen Ali. While RCB retained only 13 players, they should be happy that they have retained a strong core of Indian players; most of which look certain to represent the playing 11.

---

Royal Challengers Bangalore’s retained squad before IPL 2020 Auction:

Total Retained Players: 13 | Total Purse Available: INR 2790L

Batsmen: Ab de Villiers, Devdutt Padikkal, Parthiv Patel (WK), and Virat Kohli (C). 

All-rounders: Gurkeerat Singh, Moeen Ali, Pawan Negi, Washington Sundar, and Shivam Dube.

Bowlers: Mohammad Siraj, Navdeep Saini, Umesh Yadav, and Yuzvendra Chahal,

---

While the Indian core looks solid, this Team is nowhere near to what a winning team looks like. So, what gaps do the Royal Challengers Bangalore carry, and how do they minimize that? Let’s deep-dive on the strategy RCB can adopt for the IPL 2020 Auction. 

#2: The Overseas Picks 

Royal Challengers Bangalore retained the services of only two overseas players, Ab de Villiers and Moeen Ali. While the release of the underperforming Marcus Stoinis, Shimron Hetmyer, Heinrich Klassen, and Tim Southee looks logical, they shouldn’t have let go the services of Dale Steyn and Colin De Grandhomme. 

Looking at the current RCB setup, RCB have 6 overseas players slot to fill. Of the 6, they should look to spend big on 3 that includes a solid opener, a solid all-rounder, and a solid Pacer. Of the three, they can certainly look to buy back the services of Steyn and CDG. 

From the other top options for the above-mentioned categories, they can look at Evin Lewis, David Miller, Aaron Finch, Chris Morris, James Neesham, Colin Munro, Jason Roy, Eoin Morgan, Glenn Maxwell, Pat Cummins, and Chris Woakes. 

Of the remaining three players, two could be backups to the opening slot and the pacer slot, and others should be a backup player to Ab De Villiers. 

#1: Purchase Experienced Indian Batsmen

There was a time when RCB had a strong Indian core of batsmen surrounding Virat Kohli. But, looking at the current setup, only Parthiv Patel looks like an experienced Indian Batsmen, and the rest three- Devdutt Padikkal, Shivam Dube, and Gurkeerat Singh are talented youngsters. 

RCB can’t risk playing an inexperienced batting line-up, and thus they would have to invest heavily in buying at least 2 strong Indian players that can include a wicket-keeper.

So, looking at the current setup, the list of experienced Indian Batsmen include Robin Uthappa, Yusuf Pathan, Rahul Tripathi, Saurabh Tiwari, and maybe Deepak Hooda. 

If the above categories are purchased as expected then the ideal playing 11 that we can expect will be “Parthiv Patel, Overseas/ Indian Opener, Virat Kohli, Ab De Villiers, Indian/ Overseas Middle-order, Shivam Dube, Overseas All-rounder, Washington Sundar, Navdeep Saini, Yuzvendra Chahal, and Overseas Pacer/Umesh Yadav/ Mohammad Siraj“. 

Analyzing the squad, only Parthiv Patel looks the weak link in the above line-up, thus if they get the services of Robin Uthappa or an overseas keeper, then that could be a perfect thing for RCB. 

Thanks for reading the article! Which players do you guys think Royal Challengers Bangalore should look to buy at the IPL 2020 Auction? Please, share your thoughts on business@cricalytics.com

---

ALSO READ: IPL 2020: The Most Expensive XI of the Tournament (Costs More than 1 Billion)

---

© AK4Tsay1 Cricalytics