Record of Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) in IPL, fingers crossed this time

Despite having destructive and explosive batsmen like Virat Kohli, AB de Villiers, the Royal Challengers Bangalore team have not been able to win a single title in the last 12 seasons of IPL.

It is evident that the team had reached the finals in 2009, 2011 and 2016, but could not win the trophy. Talking about the last three seasons, the team had to struggle a lot in 2017, 2018 and 2019 and the team was ranked low. In fact, in 2019, Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) was at the bottom in the table.

Talking about the upcoming season of the IPL, the team looks stronger with the addition of Chris Morris and Aaron Finch. Kohli led RCB is the most balanced team since 2016 when it reached the final for the third time, but could not win the trophy.

The major weakness of RCB is their inability to bring consistency in the team. The team is yet to get a permanent opening pair. Since Chris Gayle’s departure in 2017, RCB’s batting has relied on Kohli and AB de Villiers, but the arrival of Australia’s limited-overs captain Aaron Finch will ease the pressure on them. With the arrival of Finch, Kohli can now open the innings with him or land at number three. In such a situation, Parthiv Patel or Devdutt Padikkal would start the innings with him.

In RCB, the bowling will feature Ali and one of leg-spinner Adam Zampa. Yuzvendra Chahal and Washington Sundar are also among the spinners. Among the fast bowlers are Morris, Dale Steyn, Navdeep Saini, Umesh Yadav and Mohammad Siraj.

RCB fans have crossed their fingers and are praying that their wait of 13 years will end this time.

RCB has a strike rate of 159.21 in the Death Overs, the highest by other batting teams. The Royal Challengers Bangalore team has won 83 in 181 matches played so far, while 92 have been defeated and tie for five matches. One match could not yield any result.

RCB are scheduled to play their first match against Sunrisers Hyderabad on 21 September.

RCB Team: Aaron Finch, Devdutt Padikkal, Parthiv Patel, Virat Kohli, AB de Villiers, Gurkeerat Mann, Shivam Dubey, Chris Morris, Washington Sundar, Shahbaz Ahmed, Navdeep Saini, Dale Steyn, Yuzvendra Chahal, Adam Zampa, Isuru Udana, Moin Ali, Josh Phillip, Pawan Negi, Pawan Deshpande, Mohammad Siraj, Umesh Yadav.