IPL 2020: Areas of improvement for all 8 franchises

2. 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

The primary concern of the Royal Challengers is the lack of an experienced Indian batsman in the middle order. While they have an explosive top order, the likes of Gurkeerat, Dube and Sundar are yet to prove themselves in the cash-rich league. Apart from the trio of Kohli, Finch, and de Villiers, the young Padikkal would be under pressure to start performing from the word go. 

Another major issue for the team is deciding the 4 foreigners in the starting XI. Finch and de Villiers would be obvious starters, and Morris would surely start given the amount he was bought for. Now the dilemma is between Moeen Ali and Dale Steyn. Ali adds value as a spin-bowling all-rounder, but him playing would weaken the pace bowling attack. The inclusion of Steyn would definitely enhance the pace attack, but would weaken the already crippled lower middle order. 

RCB have to start afresh this season, without carrying the baggage of poor performance in the recent past. Their past record in UAE isn’t impressive as well, having won only 2 games out of 5. They need to ensure that they start well, and maintain the consistency throughout the tournament. That shall only happen if the management doesn’t keep chopping and changing the squads after every game.