IPL 2016 Auction Analysis: Royal Challengers Bangalore

Total Players: 11

Auction Spend: Rs. 13.57 crores

The biggest spenders in last year’s auction, Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) moved their cards very cleverly in this IPL Auction and only bought Shane Watson at a higher price and later on they picked Indian domestic spinners and fast bowlers because they already have a great captain, two best batsmen in the world and the best fast bowler in the world but the only thing they miss is an IPL title to their name. They have played 2 finals but have no title in their cabinet. The only word that comes to the mind for RCB is underachievers.

RCB Strong Points:

They have 3 of the best batsmen in world cricket in AB de Villiers, Virat Kohli and Chris Gayle. Now they have added all-rounders like Shane Watson and Stuart Binny to their collection as well. With the leadership quality that Virat possesses, the hunger to win the title and the passion he has for the game, RCB are in the best hands possible hands. They had one of the weaker bowling attacks in the last IPL. They had to rely on Indian pacers to provide support to Mitchell Starc.

Also there were no other experienced spinner to partner Yuzvendra Chahal in the spin department but this year they have picked Samuel Badree who is at number 1 in ICC T20I bowlers’ rankings apart from that they have also picked the left-arm spinner Iqbal Abdullah and an ambidextrous spinner Akshay Karnewar to support Chahal. They have also picked Kane Richardson as a backup for Mitchell Starc and Travis Head for Chris Gayle and AB de Villiers. It will certainly give depth to their batting and bowling unit.

Weak Points:

RCB don’t have a proper wicketkeeper in their side and it is very interesting to know whether AB de Villiers will keep wickets for them or not because he does not keep wickets for his country also now-a-days other than him they have an option of Kedar Jadhav who is not also a regular keeper. They have taken a risk by not picking a regular keeper but whether it is right or not the time will tell. Apart from this one weakness, they have covered their all bases.

Predicted XI Royal Challengers Bangalore:

Chris Gayle, Shane Watson, Virat Kohli, AB de Villiers, Mandeep Singh, Sarfaraz Khan, Kedar Jadhav, Yuzvendra Chahal, Mitchell Starc, Harshal Patel, Varun Aaron