New Look Royal Challengers Bangalore

Hey everyone. Hope you have had a great new year. Well the second weekend was surely an eventful one in my life as this time around, I explored a place where it snows even during afternoon. And no its not the Himalayas but closer home, about 10 km from Bandipur. I will write about it on a later date. But back at one of Bengaluru's retreat I envy most, the ITC Royal Gardenia, the Player's Auction for the fourth season of the Indian Premier League took place. This was where two days of action, drama and pure team building tactics were brought to the fore by certain svelte beauties and a host of corporate brains. Being a native of Bengaluru there are no prizes for guessing that I fully support Royal Challengers Bangalore (Honestly I feel they should change the name to Royal Challengers Bengaluru). Here's their new look team. They have sure pulled some rabbits out of the hat;

Virat Kohli(Retention, Ind)
Daniel Vettori(Likely Captain, NZ)
Zaheer Khan(Ind)
Mohammed Kaif(Ind)
Saurabh Tiwary(Ind)
AB De Villiers(SA)
Abhimanyu Mithun(Ind)
Tillakaratne Dilshan(SL)
Dirk Nannes(Aus)
Cheteshwar Pujara(Ind)
Charl Langeveldt(SA)
Johan Van der Wath(SA)
Luke Pommersbach(Aus)
Nuwan Pradeep(SL)
Rilee Rossouw(SA)
Jonathan Vandiar(SA)

The uncapped Indian players are yet to be finalized at this point of time yet there are a few players whom I wish to see in RCB colours ; C M Gautam, Deepak Chahar, Murtuza Vahoora, Manish Pandey, S Arvind, Gaurav Dhiman, Amit Verma, C Ganapathy, Shadab Jakati, Aditya Sagar to name a few. Yet the core of the team will be the 16 players mentioned before.

One look at the team and we can identify that the RCB think tank are going in for a younger looking side which can give them sprint starts and provide death bowling supremacy. The fact that mentor Anil Kumble fiercely bid for and eventually claimed Daniel Vettori indicates to the fact that Jumbo sees in him a potential captain. The loss of Dale Steyn and Ross Taylor for sure will hurt their prospects even for that matter that of Jacques Kallis and Kevin Pietersen. Jonathan Vandiar could be a stable opener who can hold up one end while Dilshan and Co. can deliver the fireworks. Zak can be the bowling spearhead with the spin attack and the second seamers being called only as a rearguard measure. Fielding will definitely bolstered by Mohammed Kaif, Saurabh Tiwary and the likes.

On a grim note though, I certainly have a hunch that this could be another test team in the making. Firstly, we should keep in mind that only four foreign players can be inducted into the playing 11. This means that the crux of the playing 11 will be the Indians and honestly, we cannot expect the Indians to put their best efforts at the big stage. Also certain buys in the auction aren't quite justified. Cheteshwar Pujara, who is in the lineage of Rahul Dravid (We will miss the wall), is not a proven T20 performer (His KKR record speaks for itself). So are Aussie discard Pommrsbach and unheralded Pradeep. Also it will be interesting to see if Dilshan's indifferent form continues as he is expected to give a fiery start at the top of the innings.   

With a prayer on our lips and hope in our hearts let us hope that this time around, a repeat of the first season doesn't occur and look forward to an explosive IPL 4. But before, let us pray that there are no controversies, slapgates and scandals this time around for any of the 10 teams. Wishing each of the new reds godspeed and good luck.

Game for More, anyone?