IPL 2018: Auction Game Plan For Royal Challengers Bangalore

Last year was a nightmare for Royall Challengers Bangalore. Firstly, captain Virat Kohli missed a few games for the team and even when he was fit, he failed to deliver, and RCB finished the tournament as the last placed team in the season.

Going into this year’s auction, the first thing for RCB will be to find out the reason why they haven’t been able to win the cup even once. Also, they have to form almost a new team in this auction.

Let’s see few plans that RCB can implement before going into IPL auction 2018:

Getting a new opener – Chris Gayle performed poorly in the previous IPL, and he was one of the reasons, RCB failed to reach the knockout. In IPL 2016, the success of the side heavily depended on Virat Kohli. He alone took the team to the next stage.

The team has to find a suitable replacement for Chris Gayle. They can try out Evin Lewis or someone like Gautam Gambhir can be a good choice. The mix of Gambhir and Kohli might do wonders for the side.

Looking for trusted options – Impressed with Aniket Choudhary in the net session, Kohli asked RCB to buy him, and Aniket went for a price of Rs 2 Crore. RCB also spent a total of 12 Crore on Tymal Mills.

Both the players failed to do justice with money spent on them, and the team had to pay a price. The team will have to revamp strategy and opt for a new strategy going into the auction. They should look for more trusted players, who have done well in international or domestic cricket. Yuzvendra Chahal was one of the talents which RCB identified in 2014.

Getting back Yuzvendra Chahal – He was not retained RCB for reasons unknown. It was a big surprise as Chahal was the highest wicket-taker in T20Is the last year and also did well for the side in IPL. In fact, he went on to make a place in Indian team riding on his IPL exploits only.

There are high chances of Chahal bagging a big amount on the auction, and if he can bag a contract more than what the franchise had to pay him if he would have been retained, it would be a loss for them. Despite the amount which Chahal would bag on the auction day, RCB is expected to use their RTM card on him.

Should eye Kuldeep Yadav – On a small ground like M Chinnaswamy Stadium, where a leg-spinner entices batsmen to go big; one more leg-spinner can help RCB’s cause.

Last year, RCB had Samuel Badree along with Chahal, but this year, they can eye Kuldeep Yadav. The major reason behind this advice is that both Kuldeep and Yadav know each other well and their bonding can help team’s cause too.

Also, they are now a regular member of the Indian team under Kohli, who is well versed of their strengths and weaknesses. They enjoy captain’s trust and if these two play for this team, it will be an achievement for RCB to get two regular spinners of Indian cricket team in their ranks.

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