Royal Challengers Bangalore are a strong contender in the VIVO IPL 2019 especially with the ‘star cast’ that they have. Though they have not yet won a trophy, the expectation of fans is on an all-time high. The last time that the Royal Challengers Bangalore entered the final was in 2016 with the monumental support of Virat Kohli’s 973 runs that season.
2018 was not too good for the RCB when they finished sixth marking the end of another disastrous season. They had won just 6 matches out of 14 and it was a stint that all would prefer to forget. The RCB team has always been adorned with the biggest names in the sport but somehow they were unable to strike the right balance. While the other teams like Mumbai Indians the, Kolkata Knight Riders and the Chennai Super Kings have reveled in all round performances, RCB has had to often bank on the big names that have filled their top order. Players like Chris Gayle, Virat Kohli, AB de Villiers, Brendon McCullum have brought victories single handedly but cricket being a team effort based sport- it seems that all efforts have fallen flat. Fans are hoping that this IPL season of 2019 would end the jinx for RCB and that they would bring the victory that the star- studded team so deserves.
RCB Team for IPL 2019: Players retained and released
After the disappointment of 2018, the head coach, Daniel Vettori, batting and fielding coach, Trent Woodhill and Andrew McDonald who was the bowling coach were removed. Gary Kirsten, famed for bringing India’s 2011 World Cup victory has joined the team as head coach for IPL 2019. Ashish Nehra too has joined the squad.
Some of the others who were removed from the team were – Brendon McCullum, Chris Woakes, Corey Anderson, and Quinton de Kock. Mandeep Singh who scored more than 250 runs was then traded to Kings XI Punjab for Australia’s Marcus Stoinis. In the auction, RCB bought talents like Shivam Dubey and Shimron Hetmyer.
RCB Team for IPL 2019: Present Team
The present team consists of:
- Virat Kohli (C)
- AB de Villiers
- Parthiv Patel
- Yuzvendra Chahal
- Tim Southee
- Umesh Yadav
- Navdeep Saini
- Kulwant Khejroliya
- Washington Sundar
- Pawan Negi
- Nathan Coulter-Nile
- Moeen Ali
- Mohammed Siraj
- Colin de Grandhomme
- Shimron Hetmyer
- Devdutt Padikkal
- Prayas Ray Barman,
- Shivam Dube
- Heinrich Klassen
- Gurkeerat Singh
- Himmat Singh
- Mandeep Singh
The RCB Squad 2019 needs to strike a balance in the team and synchronization between the stalwarts. Once their bowling unit is strengthened, the team is sure to create new records and win.
