Royal Challengers Bangalore has a team that could make an impact in IPL-4

This RCB is hungry for the IPL gold. And why wouldn’t they be!

By Dhruv Rupani

This Royal Challengers Bangalore is hungry for the IPL gold. And why wouldn’t they be! After a horrendous first season, they finished with the silver in the second season and bronze in the third season. Vijay Mallya will only be hoping that IPL4 will get his team the gold. And the team picked this time might just be able to help in achieving that.

Daniel Vettori has been chosen to lead the side. I believe that it is a marvelous decision made by the RCB management, since he has captained a youthful New Zealand team in the past and is an inspirational T20 bowler. Also, alongside Mahendra Singh Dhoni, he is one of the calmest characters on the cricket field and also well-respected by the cricketing fraternity. So it is expected that his leadership will be bring stability in the team.

Bangalore’s love affair with South Africa continues. They picked Jacques Kallis, Dale Steyn, Mark Boucher, Roelof van der Merwe last season. This time they went a step further and bought five South Africans. Charl Langeveldt played for Kolkata Knight Riders last season, and even at 34 this old war-horse is capable of picking wickets at regular intervals. Johan van der Wath is a young, wicket-taking fast bowler, so Bangalore have a good fast bowling arsenal.

Jonathan Vandiar and Rillee Rosseuw are South Africa’s most promising and talented batting pair at the moment. Both of them can bowl as well and that makes the team flexible enough. And, of course, there is AB de Villiers, who is South Africa’s premier batsman at the moment and has gelled with ease into the role of a wicketkeeper. He is just 26, and one of the most exciting T20 batsmen in world cricket at present.

Alongside de Villiers, there is the duo of Tillakratne Dilshan and Dirk Nannes. It may be recollected that the quartet of Vettori, de Villiers, Dilshan and Nannes played for Delhi Daredevils in the last three seasons. So the core team is familiar with each other and that reduces the workload of the coach and captain. Of course, Dilshan can be an asset in the T20 version of the game, as seen in the 2009 World Cup. Nannes is another lethal bowler, capable of severe damage in his four overs.

Besides, the Indian contingent is also an impressive lot. Zaheer Khan opening the bowling with Nannes or Langeveldt spells trouble for the opposition. Zaheer is by far India’s best bowler at the moment, and even in the IPL it was astonishing that Mumbai Indians did not retain him. Mumbai’s loss is Bangalore’s gain. Vijay Mallya and his brains trust realized their mistake in swapping Zaheer with Robin Uthappa in the second season, by giving it everything to select him again.

Abhimanyu Mithun adds some local flavour in this team, which has been lost due to the departures of Rahul Dravid, Anil Kumble and R Vinay Kumar. Mithun played one Test for India in 2010 and can be a handful in T20s as well. Cheteshwar Pujara and Saurabh Tiwary make Bangalore’s middle-order the strongest in the IPL. Pujara has proven that he can play T20s, with Kolkata last season and is one of the finest talents in Indian cricket, whereas Tiwary did his hard-hitting skills enough justice when playing for Mumbai Indians last season.

Mohammad Kaif has been a let-down for Rajasthan and Punjab, but if he rediscovers his form with the bat soon and adds his brilliant fielding to it, it could be his re-birth. And that is exactly what Bangalore wants.

Certainly, Bangalore makes one of the most balanced teams in the IPL and I would rate them as one of the strong contenders to make it to the top three yet again, if not win the championship itself. Another Champions League berth and Bangalore would be the most sought-after team in IPL history.