BENGALURU: One look at the Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) squad after the IPL mega auction and it is a case of old wine in a new bottle. Problems are plenty.
The auction was an opportunity for the team to make the changes that were needed and break their title jinx, but Bangalore failed to pick quality Indian players. This has left them lacking in depth on the batting front, which could hurt them if they manage to qualify for the end stages of upcoming IPLs.
Among the top six costliest players at the auction, five were Indians. And while Bangalore did avail the services of Harshal Patel (Rs 10.75 crore) and Dinesh Karthik (Rs 5.50 crore), the rest of the Indian players they invested in, including Mahipal Lomror and Shahbaz Ahmed, will not instill fear amongst their opponents.
They also allowed themselves to get outbidded by other teams having bigger purses. How did that happen?
One reason could be their splurging on Sri Lanka spinner Wanindu Hasaranga, for whom they paid Rs 10.75 crore at a time when Yuzvendra Chahal, who has been a fine servant for Bangalore in the past, had not come up for auction. The latter was snapped up by Rajasthan Royals for Rs 6.5 crore.
And despite RCB being in need of an explosive opener and a possible captain, they did not even make a bid for David Warner, who went to Delhi Capitals for a relatively modest Rs 6.25 crore. They might have made that call as they had already signed Faf Du Plessis, who could lead the team next season. However, the team management have not finalised their captain yet.
"We have three great leaders in Maxwell, Virat, and Faf du Plessis. We are happy with those three leaders, also have Josh Hazlewood as a leader from the bowling point of view. So we are happy with the group, we will make a decision regarding captaincy after the auction," Mike Hesson, Director of Cricket Operations, RCB, had said .
Irrespective of who leads the team, the captain has a huge task ahead with the franchise not able to fill the gaping hole left by the departure of their stalwart AB de Villiers. It also means, their big players, including Virat Kohli, Glenn Maxwell (both retained) and new man Du Plessis will be under sheer pressure to deliver.
From the present squad, it seems incredibly difficult to find a decent better at No 3 and 6. The team lacks a solid finisher at six or seven as well. This was one of the problem areas last season. They might have to depend on the 36-year-old Karthik to bring his A game week in and week out and shoulder responsibility with cameos. It will be interesting to see if David Willey will be given the role of assisting Karthik.
If the franchise has anything to be happy about, it is the look of their pacers department. With Mohammed Siraj already retained, and the likes of Patel, Willey, Josh Hazlewood, Jason Behrendorff and Siddharth Kaul around, there is quality and firepower in plenty.
While they have pacers for all kinds of surfaces, they come up short in the spin department. Barring leg-spinner Hasaranga, they do not have much quality there and this too can create create problems when it comes to fielding the right combinations.