IPL 2019: Analyzing Strengths and Weaknesses of RCB

Virat Kohli and AB de Villiers, the highlight as we look at the strengths and weakness(es) of Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) for IPL 2019.

The less we talk about Royal Challengers Bangalore’s performance, the better it will be.  The team always generates huge hype before the start of the tournament, but somehow fails to live up to the expectations.

Anyway, coming to the IPL 2019 campaign, Royal Challengers Bangalore already had a strong squad barring for a few gaps. To address those, they added Shimron Hetmyer, Henrich Klaasen, Shivam Dube, Akshdeep Nath, Devdutt Padikkal, Himmat Singh, Gurkeerat Singh, Milind Kumar, and Prayas Barman to their squad.

So, let’s try to identify the strengths and weaknesses of the Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) squad for IPL 2019.

STRENGTHS:

AB de Villiers and Virat Kohli:

Even though Cricket is a team game, the presence of this amazing duo, Virat Kohli and AB de Villiers is enough to give nightmares to the opposition. They are probably the best T20 players in the world currently, and they can single-handedly win the matches for RCB.

Pace Bowling:

Royal Challengers Bangalore are a side filled with quality pace bowling. This includes the likes of Umesh Yadav, Mohammad Siraj, Tim Southee, Nathan Coulter Nile, Navdeep Saini, and Marcus Stoinis.

Umesh Yadav and Mohammad Siraj were excellent last year for the RCB, and would be expected to perform similar, if not better this year too.

Nathan Coulter-Nile and Tim Southee provide solid backups, and will be wisely used depending on the overseas combination. 

Spinners:

Another area where RCB have their bases covered. Yuzvendra Chahal will once again lead the spin department, and he will be equally supported by IPL wonder, Washington Sundar. Apart from these two, there is quality in the backups too in the form of Moeen Ali and Pawan Negi.  

WEAKNESSES:

Openers:

It is not a difficult thing to point out that RCB have a shallow opening combination. Parthiv Patel would be expected to open the innings; at least initially considering the lack of options available. While he may not be a bad choice, he is not good either. Shimron Hetmyer is a good buy from the RCB, and he has the potential to fill the void created by Chris Gayle.

Apart from these two, RCB have only Henrich Klaasen as a good backup, which means RCB may have a hard time if things do not go the way they have expected

CONCLUSION:

Overall, Royal Challengers Bangalore have one of the best squad this time around, and this might finally be the year when they can get their hands on the title under the leadership of Virat Kohli.

Thanks for reading! What is it that you like the most in Royal Challengers Bangalore? Please, let’s know in the comments. 

ALSO READ: IPL 2019: Analyzing Strengths and Weaknesses of Rajasthan Royals

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Adesh Kothari

Adesh Kothari is the founder of AK4Tsay1 Cricalytics.

Cricket to him is like what ‘Football is to Lionel Messi’, ‘Singing is to Lata Mangeshkar’, ‘Dancing is to Michael Jackson’, and what ‘Acting is to Clint Eastwood’.

Besides his effervescent love for Cricket, Adesh is an MBA by qualification.