RCB will feature in the 15th edition of the Indian Premier League with a new skipper as Virat Kohli had stepped down from captaincy last year.
The South African star Faf du Plessis is announced as the skipper of RCB ahead of IPL 2022.
Faf du Plessis was the backbone of the Chennai Super Kings batting lineup in the previous seasons and he was amongst the main contributor behind CSK’s victory in the last season.
RCB fans are hoping that Faf will also perform well for the team and lead them to their maiden IPL trophy.
2 major changes
The IPL 2022 will be a little bit sad for the RCB fans due to two reasons.
First, they will miss the captaincy of Virat Kohli, and secondly, they won’t be able to see the duo of Virat and de-Villiers in this season as de-Villiers has announced his retirement from all forms of cricket recently.
AB de-Villiers was one of the main pillars of the RCB’s batting lineup for many seasons and he has single-handedly won many matches for them.
Hence, it will be very difficult to fill the de-Villiers space in the middle-order.
RCB has added Dinesh Karthik as an experienced batter to strengthen their batting.
The pace department is looking very strong with the likes of Josh Hazlewood, Jason Bhendroff, and David Willey alongside the leading wicket-taker of last season Harshal Patel.
RCB’s final Squad
Faf du Plessis, Suyash Prabhudessai, Virat Kohli, Anuj Rawat (WK), Dinesh Karthik (WK), Finn Allen (WK), Luvnith Sisodia (WK, Aneeshwar Gautam, David Willey, Glenn Maxwell, Mahipal Lomror, Shahbaz Ahmed, Sherfane Rutherford & Wanindu Hasaranga, Akash Deep, Chama Milind, Harshal Patel, Jason Behrendorff, Josh Hazlewood, Mohammed Siraj, Siddharth Kaul & Karn Sharma
The squad of Royal Challengers Bangalore is looking good with a lot of options but who will feature in the playing XI is a big question.
So, we have made of list of cricketers who will be a part of the first match.
Openers; du Plessis and Anuj Rawat
Royal Challengers Bangalore would go with a totally new opening pair in 2022.
In the previous two seasons, RCB had the duo of Devdutt Padikkal and Virat Kohli to open the innings for them.
The new skipper of RCB, Faf du Plessis was outstanding for CSK in the last two years and he shall open the innings to provide a good start to their side.
There is a close contest for the second opener between Virat Kohli and Anuj Rawat.
Virat Kohli wouldn’t mind opening the innings alongside Faf du Plessis but the youngster Anuj Rawat will be more effective at the opening spot.
It will give him a lot of confidence to bat with Faf du Plessis and learn from him.
Middle-Order; Kohli, Maxwell, Lomror, and Karthik
The middle-order will become very strong if Virat Kohli bat’s at no 3 position followed by Glenn Maxwell, Mahipal Lomror, and Dinesh Karthik.
No one in the squad can compete with Virat Kohli for the one-down position while Glenn Maxwell will bat at No 4 and he had to play the role of de-Villiers in his absence.
Lomror is a good option at number 5 who can not only bat aggressively but also bowl part-time spin bowling.
Dinesh Karthik will bat at 6 as wicketkeeper-batsman and he will add experience to the squad that will help the side in this tournament.
All-rounders; Hasaranga and Shahbaz
Shahbaz Ahmad and the star Sri Lankan spin bowler Wanindu Hasaranga will be a part of the playing XI as bowling all-rounders.
Hararanga is a really good bowler of T20 cricket and he has a very good economy rate.
He has also played a lot of good innings with the bat for his national side.
The main purpose of Hasaranga and Shahbaz will be bowing but they have to do the best finishing job as well when the need arises.
Bowlers; Harshal, Siraj, and Hazelwood
The pace bowling of RCB is magnificent this season and they have a lot of good options in their lineup.
Mohammed Siraj and Josh Hazlewood will be their front-line bowlers who will bowl the powerplay and death overs for the side.
The purple cap winner from last season Harshal Patel will bowl in the middle overs and he will try to repeat his last year’s performance by bowling exceptionally.
