3 Players RCB should pick in the IPL trade ahead of 2020 season

Year after year, RCB fans proudly wear the red jersey only to face heartbreak and disappointment by the end of the season. The last time RCB qualified for playoffs was in season 9. Even Virat Kohli with his Bradman-esque form scoring 973 runs in a single IPL couldn’t take his side home. In IPL 2019, RCB had a disastrous start to the tournament, as they lost their first six games. By the conclusion of the league stage, the franchise languished at the bottom of the table.

Inexplicable selections and poor tactics have attributed to their failures. For exchanging players the trade window has been opened. Mumbai Indians and Delhi Capitals have already traded their players and soon other teams will make a jump in the ship. RCB also won’t hold itself back as they need to fill some gaps with the use of the trade window.

Here we look at three players RCB should rope in to end their title drought

1. Basil Thampi

Death bowling has been RCB’s Achilles heel since, forever. Everybody knows it; the captain, the spectators, even the bookmakers. Especially, in recent years, oppositions save their ignition just for the final overs assault. Their overseas pacers got injured before or midway through the tournament.

The Indian set of pacers isn’t reliable either. Umesh, Siraj, and Khejroliya do not give confidence to Kohli about their death overs competence. RCB desperately need a gun pacer who can bowl fast and accurate. The answer to that could be SRH’s Basil Thampi.

The Kerala born speedster is a blend of raw pace and precise control. Starting his IPL career with Gujarat lions in 2017, he scalped 11 wickets with a best of 3/29. After the dissolving of Gujarat Lions, SRH bought Thampi where his skills took everyone’s heed and appraisals. Since SRH already had a strong bowling attack, Thampi got chances in only seven games in the last two seasons combined. But the addition of the 25-year-old will add extra pace to RCB’s frail Indian bowling attack.

2. Rahul Tripathi

Along with the bowling issues, RCB of late are having the problem to maintain a stable line-up. With the departure of De Kock and McCullum prior to the last season, Kohli has taken up the opening duties with Parthiv which makes the middle order look weak.

There is not much support available to AB de Villiers in the slog overs. Therefore, for Kohli to bat at three, RCB needs a solid opener. And at the moment, Rahul Tripathi from Rajashtan Royals looks a safe bet.

Tripathi was poorly utilized by Rajasthan this year as he was asked to bat in the middle-order where he scored mere 141 runs. The concerning matter was his strike rate dropped to 119 in comparison to 135 in 2018. Tripathi had his best season when he regularly opened for Rising Pune Supergiant.  The opener scored 391 runs in 14 games at a strike-rate of 146 with a best of 93 against KKR.

The Ranchi born opener could provide an impetus at the start of the innings for the Bangalore franchise.

3. Carlos Brathwaite

Carlos “Remember the name” Brathwaite is one of many all-rounders the Caribbean Islands have gifted to the T20 cricketing world. Brathwaite lightened up the Eden with his strike of four consecutive maximums in the T20 World Cup 2016 final.

He was part of SRH in 2017 season and then was bought by KKR in IPL 2019. In the presence of Russell and Narine, the 31-year-old all-rounder was ignored for most of the tournament. He got only two games under his belt in 2019 season, where he couldn’t do much.

But Stoinis or Grandhomme also could not produce match-winning performances for RCB. His strength and six-hitting prowess are not at all obscure. He has a strike rate of 163 in the 14 innings he has played in IPL. Brathwaite is the captain of the Windies in the T20 format and his performance in the World Cup could tempt the RCB management to rope the Barbadian for either Stoinis or Grandhomme.