Revamp for RCB

Namma Royal Challengers Bangalore has got a brand-new team now with the IPL 2019 auctions having taken place recently in Jaipur. While the core team remains unchanged, RCB sold Quinton deCock to Mumbai and traded Mandeep Singh for Australian all-rounder Marcus Stoinis. While RCB released Brendon McCullum, Corey Anderson, Chris Woakes and Sarfaraz Khan, fans of AB de Villiers can rejoice as Mr. 360 will be playing the next IPL for us! While 17-year old Devdutt Padikkal was bought for '20 lakh, West Indian Shimron Heytmyer who shone in the recent ODI series against India was bought for '4.2 crore. Hardcore RCB buffs are hoping that this fresh team will lead us to brighter prospects in 2019. 

“I’ve seen Devdutt in close quarters. He certainly has glimpses of Yuvi in his batting! He has been a prolific scorer since then, he’s the leading run-scorer for Karnataka in all the age groups(U-14, U-16 and U-19). Coming back to the composition of the side and the buys at the auction, they have emphasised more on acquiring young and promising players. The inclusion of Heytmyer, Shivam Dubey, Gurkeerat and Klaasen have put an end to the middle-order woes.

Also, we have more bowling options compared to the last season! The dilemma of the fifth bowler has also been solved. The only thing is that, choosing the best possible playing eleven will be a huge headache,” says student Aakanksh Sreenath who also believes that RCB’s new head coach Gary Kirsten is the perfect man to lead the team as he knows captain Kohli in and out.

A big buy for RCB this year was Shivam Dubey who was bought for Rs 5 crore while Akshdeep Nath and Prayas Barman were later bought for Rs 3.60 crore  and Rs 1.5 crore respectively.  With our new recruits playing really well in the Ranji Trophy, freelance cricket analyst Sai Krishna says, “Milind Kumar leads the list of most runs this seasonwith 1017 runs and Akshdeep Nath is a versatile cricketer who can bat, bowl and keep wickets. These uncapped players including Shivam Dubey may make a huge difference to the squad this time.”

Arjun Gowda, project marketing analyst and professional cricketer believes that the management has finally done the right thing by filling up the empty back up slots in each segment of the team which was missing all these years. “Adding some fresh young pool of talent is a huge boost. We need to start with Parthiv Patel and Virat Kohli who are excellent new ball players who can bring in those much needed quick runs during the Power Play that’s very essential in a T20 format. Heytmyer should be next, followed by our beloved AB de Villiers who can be very destructive if one of or both openers to get out.   What we have is a great pace attack with the likes of Umesh Yadav and Navdeep Saini who can just go brutal against the opposition at speed of 140+ kmph joining hands with Marcus Stoinis and Tim Southee. The one who completes my list is the most crucial wicket taker Yuzvendra Chahal.” 

 Let’s hope that the revamped red brigade does the trick for us in 2019 and namma fans finally have something to rejoice about ‘boldly’!