IPL 2020: A complete SWOT Analysis of all eight teams

Royal Challengers Bangalore

Squad-Virat Kohli(c), Moeen Ali, Yuzvendra Chahal, Pavan Deshpande, AB de Villiers, Shivam Dube, Aaron Finch, Gurkeerat Mann, Mohammed Siraj, Chris Morris, Pawan Negi, Devdutt Padikal, Parthiv Patel, Joshua Philippe,  Shahbaz Ahmad, Navdeep Saini, Dale Steyn, Isuru Udana, Washington Sundar, Umesh Yadav, Adam Zampa

Strengths

• Variety of Death Bowlers in the Squad- A pressing problem for RCB across seasons has been their pace bowling, precisely their death bowling. The Virat Kohli-led team has time and time again floundered in the last few overs of their bowling innings which has cost them a number of matches, especially the 2016 IPL final. RCB did what was asked of them during the auction and got in two excellent but underrated death bowler in the form of Chris Morris.

The presence of Isuru Udana, another bowler with a number of variations up his sleeve, will also be useful on the pitches of UAE. All in all, with the budget they had, RCB have covered their weakest base and have now have on their hands a number of good death bowlers.

• The Combination of Virat Kohli and AB de Villiers-The two players, who have been the pillars of RCB for almost a decade, continue to be their biggest strength going into the 13th season. Riding on their outstanding performance, RCB had reached the finals in 2016, where Kohli had scored an unbelievable 973 runs and de Villiers wasn’t too far behind with 687. Even apart from that season, either one of de Villiers or Kohli has usually been the highest run-getter for them year after year. Kohli’s class and grace has been the perfect complement to de Villiers’ outrageous big-hitting. The fans of the franchise would be hoping this time around this deadly pair, which has consistently been successful, is finally able to get their hands on the trophy which has eluded them for far too long.

Weakness–

• Unreliable Middle Order- While RCB made a great attempt to rectify their death bowling problem in the auction, they haven’t found an antidote to their brittle middle order. While Aaron Finch is an excellent buy for them, it again just strengthens their top order.They are most likely to have a 5 , 6, 7 of Moeen Ali, Gurkeerat Singh/Shivam Dube, and Chris Morris. While they are all decent batsmen especially Moeen Ali, none of them have had a great run of form. While Ali predominantly bats in the top 3 for his domestic T20 team in England, Morris has had a dreadful 15 months with the bat. Add to that a very crucial number 6 spot being occupied by a player who hasn’t played much of IPL, the middle order could once again become RCB’s greatest liability.

Opportunity

• The likes of Kohli and Finch would have come into the IPL in March exhausted from a long international season. The extension might turn out to be a boon for RCB as their prime players have got a long period of rest and would be raring to go.

Threat

• The core of the current RCB team has had a horrid last couple of seasons. Like good teams carry on positive momentum from successful moments spent together, negative energy of losses also continues. And if RCB get off to a losing start once again, the memories of the last season where they lost their first 6 games are sure to resurface to haunt them and it could go all downhill from there.

Potential Surprises – Devdutt Padikal, Washington Sundar