India’s heartbreaking semi-final exit and the end of the Twenty20 World Cup may have come as a dampener for cricket aficionados. But fret not, because the Indian Premier League is back! Having made two final appearances in 2009 and 2011, Royal Challengers Bangalore have packed up their team with new additions, who will bolster their campaign in the ninth edition of the IPL that began on April 9.
Here’s a lowdown on the new entrants:
SHANE WATSON (AUS): With Chris Gayle, AB De Villiers and Virat Kohli, RCB arguably have the most powerful and envious batting line-up in the tournament. Add Shane Watson to the list and their arsenal just gets better.
The 34-year-old Australian all-rounder, at a price of Rs 9.5 crore, is RCB’s biggest buy this season and fans are eager to see him open the innings with Gayle. “Since he has retired from international cricket, Watson will be available for the whole season, which is great for RCB,” sports enthusiast Harsha Priyadarshi says of the former Rajasthan Royals player. “He is a fantastic all-rounder, experienced and knows how to rescue his team in crunch situations.”
STUART BINNY (IND): Last season, one of the biggest complaints with RCB was the absence of Karnataka players in the squad, barring Sreenath Aravind’s arrival as replacement for Adam Milne. This season, however, the club has made amends by bringing in all-rounder Stuart Binny at his base price of Rs 2 crore. Son of former cricketer Roger Binny, Stuart has good experience playing for Mumbai Indians and Rajasthan Royals. “He has the much needed local experience. He's a specialist batsman who can bowl well too. But we need to know how to use him," says student and cricket buff Sai Vishnu Tej.
KANE RICHARDSON (AUS): The 25-year-old paceman, bought for '2 crore, is an exciting young prospect to emerge from Australia and will be an added asset to the RCB bowling department. With impressive performances in the Big Bash League, where he took 10 wickets from nine matches for Adelaide Strikers, Richardson, who was picked by Rajasthan Royals last season, can be a valuable replacement in case of an injury to fellow Aussie pacer Mitchell Starc.
SAMUEL BADREE (WI): The Windies leg-spinner, bougt for '50 lakhs has ample experience playing in a plethora of T20 tournaments such as the Caribbean Premier League, Big Bash League, Pakistan Super League, Bangladesh Premier League and the IPL. But with RCB’s four main foreign mainstays — Gayle, De Villiers, Starc and Watson — already set, it remains to be seen how much of Badree will the fans get to see.
TRAVIS HEAD (AUS): The 22-year-old Aussie southpaw, released from Delhi Daredevils earlier this year, will be an interesting player to watch out for. He has an impressive strike rate of 149.73 from 23 T20 games and was a star performer for Adelaide Strikers in the Big Bash League. At '50 lakh, RCB has invested well in the young wicketkeeper-batsman, who can be a good cover for injury-prone Chris Gayle.
Other buys: Praveen Dubey, Vikramjeet Malik, Akshay Karnewar, Vikas Tokas, Iqbal Abdullah, Sachin Baby.
