Aakash Chopra predicts the starting XI for Royal Challengers Bangalore

The Royal Challengers Bangalore as always has its batting lineup studded with superstars. After letting off some key players in the IPL auction, the Challengers managed to find able replacements for them. However, the key concern for RCB has been their bowling over the last few seasons. It is mostly no different for them this year and bowling is definitely a weak link for this team.

Cricket analyst Aakash Chopra is currently posting a series of tweets on his Twitter account where he is picking the best XI for each IPL team. In this process, Aakash also shared what he thinks is the best possible lineup for RCB. Virat Kohli, Yuzvendra Chahal, AB de Villiers are no-brainers to make it to the XI.

Here is Aakash Chopra’s starting XI for the RCB:

Royal Challengers Bangalore have choices in abundance to start off with. They can open their innings with either Manan Vohra, Quinton de Kock or Parthiv Patel. However, Aakash Chopra chose to go with an Indian keeper in Parthiv to open alongside Brendon McCullum. He said that Virat can go back to his usual No.3 position followed by AB de Villiers and Sarfraz Khan.

However, according to Aakash Chopra, No.6 is a position of concern for RCB. He said RCB will either play Mandeep Singh or Pawan Negi at No.6 which he thinks is a weak link. But he feels playing Chris Woakes at No.7 could help bury this weakness. Aakash said that the two spinners for RCB will be Yuzvendra Chahal and Washington Sundar. He said RCB will play Nathan Coulter Nile and the last option could be either of Siraj or Aniket.

But, he later realized that RCB also has Umesh Yadav in their squad. So he felt Umesh could be drafted in as the other fast bowling option. However, given Umesh’s inconsistency in T20 format, it will be interesting to see if they will pick him in the side. Given his experience, he could be an option in the starting XI.

Here is the team for IPL 2018:

Parthiv Patel, Brendon McCullum, Virat Kohli, AB de Villiers, Sarfraz Khan, Mandeep Singh/ Pawan Negi, Chris Woakes, Yuzvendra Chahal, Washington Sundar, Nathan Colter Nile, Umesh Yadav

As promised, I've picked the #RCB's possible playing XI….but after recording I realised that Umesh Yadav is there too 😉 So, draft him in too…let me know if you agree with this line-up. #AakashVani #IPL pic.twitter.com/rc4zopMJyw

— Aakash Chopra (@cricketaakash) February 2, 2018