Hi Friends,
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Recently, there was a mega auction for Cricket players from all over the World for selecting the players for various IPL teams we have in India which play in the Indian Premier League T20 Cricket.
Normally, the matches will be played during March to May but sometimes there might be change in the schedule based on situation in India.
Coming back to the auction of players, me, being a Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) team fan, I would like to analyze the players retained, brought in this auction and also the possible playing XI.
RCB is said to be pushing back the captaincy to former captain and current retained player Virat Kohli and I think that will be a good news if that happens considering, Virat Kohli will have a chance to be among the IPL winning captains if RCB can win One in next 2 3 years.
Along with Virat Kohli, RCB retained other 2 Indian players Yash Dayal and Raja Patidar who were the main players from India who contributed well in IPL 2024.
RCB released all other players including their the then captain Faf Du Plessis, Glenn Maxwell, Mohammad Siraj and others and their new team looks promising One with few allrounders being selected in the team and here I share the details of players brought by RCB in the auction.
The players highlighted in green are the players who were retained by RCB with Virat Kohli being the prominent name in that and a possible captain for them in the upcoming season.
The player highlighted in blue, Swapnil Singh is the guy who was brought back with Right To Match option and remaining all players highlighted in white are the players who were brought newly.
With Virat Kohli tipped to play as an opener like he did in recent IPL seasons, he will be One of the 2 openers most probably for RCB in the next year's IPL too and with Phil Salt brought in for INR 11.5 Crores, he will be the other opener being a wicket keeper too.
So, that will be the opening pair most probably for RCB and with Rajat Patidar and Devdutt Padikkal also part of next year's team, One of those 2 will be playing in Third position, but my gut feeling says, it will be Devdutt Padikkal with Rajat Patidar mostly playing at number 4.
There are quite a lot of allrounders in the new form team and Liam Livingstone being One of those and most probably, will play at number 5 with his useful offspin/legbreak bowling will be an added bonus on slow Chinnaswami pitches.
RCB also brought Tim David, who last played for MI and he is a dangerous customer with the bat and most possibly, he will play at Sixth position.
A host of allrounders to follow in Rasikh Salam, Krunal Pandya and even Bhuvneshwar Kumar back in RCB and also Romario Shepherd!!!.
So, Romario Shepherd or Josh Hazlewood will be One of the 2 who will fill the Fourth overseas player spot and I guess mostly it will be Romario Shepherd considering his hard hitting batting and mostly will play at number 7.
I think Kunal Pandya will play a huge role next year for RCB being a spin bowling allrounder and has contributed many a times for MI and off late to LSG teams and will be a crucial player at number 8.
Bhuvneshwar Kumar although has lost his place from Indian team ODI and T20 squad, I think he is still among best swing bowlers India have and mostly play at number 9 for RCB next year with some useful runs can be expected from him as he has done for SRH and team India.
Rasikh Salam who impressed everyone in this year's IPL playing for Delhi Capitals, I think will mostly play at number 10 for RCB considering his swing bowling with slow cutters and knuckle balls being his specialty which deceived most of the batters.
Number 11 player, obviously, it will be Yash Dayal, the promising left arm seamer who played a crucial role in this year's IPL for RCB.
So, it will be mostly 4 main batters, 4 or 5 allrounders and 2 main bowlers is what I picked as a combination and I think this year's team will be a bit more balanced team for RCB with quite a lot of allrounders and there are notable bowlers in Josh Hazlewood, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Nuwan Thushara, Lungi Ngidi being in the team.
I am hoping, we can expect a better show from RCB in next year's IPL and also hoping, Virat Kohli will be back as captain!!!!
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