Royal Challengers Bangalore(RCB) hasn't witnessed great success in the last thirteen years of the IPL. Despite reaching the IPL final thrice, the Bangalore-based franchise has failed to get their hands on the coveted IPL trophy even once. The team has featured some of the modern-day greats like Chris Gayle, Dale Steyn, Ab De Villers, along with the Indian likes of Virat Kohli, Yuvraj Singh among others over the years. However, RCB's failure to underperform in IPL history is also a result of their inability in putting together a strong playing 11 on the park.
Even though they had a much better outing in the IPL 2020 held in the UAE, RCB released ten players before the 2021 IPL Auction that was held just a while back in Chennai. They had one of the highest auction purses going into the auction with three overseas slots to fill as they had already retained AB De Villiers, Joshua Phillipe, Kane Richardson, and Adam Zampa while acquiring Daniel Sams through trade with the Delhi Capitals.
In the 2021 auction, RCB bought the likes of Glenn Maxwell, Dan Christian, while the other overseas slot was filled by the Kiwi paceman Kyle Jamieson. Based upon their 2021 auction buys, here's a look at the best RCB predicted playing 11 for the 2021 IPL season.
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Royal Challengers Bangalore IPL Squad 2021:
Virat Kohli, AB de Villiers, Devdutt Padikkal, Mohammed Siraj, Navdeep Saini, Washington Sundar, Yuzvendra Chahal, Joshua Phillipe, Pavan Deshpande, Shahbaz Ahmed, Adam Zampa, Kane Richardson, Kyle Jamieson, Glenn Maxwell, Dan Christian, Sachin Baby, Rajat Patidar, Mohammed Azharudeen, Suyash Prabhudesai, and Kona Srikar Bharat.
Best Predicted Playing 11 for Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) in IPL 2021
Devdutt Padikkal, Mohammad Azharudeen, Virat Kohli, AB De Villiers, Glenn Maxwell, Dan Christian, Washington Sundar, Kyle Jamieson, Navdeep Saini, Mohammad Siraj, Yuzuvendra Chahal
1. Openers: Devdutt Padikkal and Mohammad Azharudeen
The Indian uncapped duo of Devdutt Padikkal and Mohammad Azharuddeen is most likely to start as openers for RCB in the upcoming IPL season. Padikkal was the leading run-scorer for RCB in his maiden IPL season last year and even won the emerging player of the year award in 2020. He has been in amazing form for Karnataka in the recently concluded Syed Mushtaq Ali trophy and continues to wield his magic even in the ongoing Vijay Hazare trophy.
Kerala batsman Mohammad Azharuddin made the headlines after smashing a stunning unbeaten 137 off just 54 balls in the SMAT against Mumbai. This paved way for selection at RCB in the 2021 IPL auction and being a wicket-keeper batsman might work in his favor to be part of the RCB playing 11.
2. Middle-Order: Virat Kohli, AB De Villiers, Glenn Maxwell
Skipper Virat Kohli and AB De Villiers have been an integral part of the RCB for many years now as two strong pillars for the Bangalore franchise. However, the team's over-reliance on the partnership of Virat and AB has been one of the main reasons that are RCB is still in the hunt for their maiden IPL trophy. In the 2021 auction, RCB had to spend huge bucks to acquire the services of Glenn Maxwell at the auction table.
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It was quite evident that RCB was in desperate need of a batting all-rounder in the playing 11 who could offer support in the middle-order to the ever-reliant duo of Kohli and De Villiers. The franchise would desire that Maxwell, who was signed for a whopping auction price of INR 14.25 Crores, would help them turn fortunes in the upcoming edition of the IPL in 2021. Despite having a lackluster IPL season for Punjab in 2020, the Kohli-led side has trusted the all-rounder to deliver as a formidable part of the RCB playing 11.
3. All-Rounders: Dan Christian. Washington Sundar
The veteran all-rounder Dan Christian is making his comeback of sorts to the IPL after getting picked at the auction by RCB. Christian had a memorable outing in the BBL in every department of the game and his experience will come in handy for the Kohli-led team.
Washington Sundar has grown by leaps and bounds to become a Test player from just being recognized as a T20 specialist. Sundar owns the responsibility to bowl in the starting six overs with the new ball. He did a decent job for RCB in 2020, and the franchise would hope the southpaw can even contribute with the bat in hand in the lower-order. The Tamil Nadu-born player would be high on confidence and one could expect him to be one of the key players for RCB going into the new season.
The newest addition to the side, the tall Kiwi pacer Kyle Jamieson might lend a great value to the RCB pace attack. The 26-year-old has had a brilliant start to his Test career and is seen as the cricketer to watch out for in the upcoming few years. Despite having not played a huge amount of T20 cricket, RCB brought Jamieson for a whopping auction price of INR 15 Crores.
Mohammad Siraj and Navdeep Saini will be the other two pacers featuring for RCB in their likely playing 11. Yuzuvendra Chahal is the specialist spinner for RCB and one of the first-choice players in the starting 11 for the Red Army. Chahal has taken the most wickets for RCB and will lead a majorly young bowling attack for his team.
