Hindu
LET'S DO IT: RCB's new skipper Virat Kohli will once again be banking on
Chris Gayle for rollicking starts and match-winning knocks. File photo
Ever since its starting-block stumble during the Indian Premier League’s
inception in 2008, Royal Challengers Bangalore has made a steady climb,
though the peak — a trophy triumph — has remained elusive.
From being whipping boys in the inaugural year (RCB finished seventh
among eight teams), the squad is now considered a team to watch out for.
The turn-around was engineered ever since it finished runner-up in the
2009 edition in South Africa.
Welcome infusion
The welcome infusion of batting mayhem thanks to Chris Gayle’s presence
over the last two years has only added to the team’s allure. And it was
largely riding on his heroics that RCB qualified for the 2011 edition’s
final, though both the team and Gayle failed in the summit clash against
Chennai Super Kings.
As a new season dawns, there has been a change of guard with Virat Kohli
being anointed captain. It was a natural progression as Kohli was
earmarked as future captain ever since he turned out in the red and gold
colours. He had a taste of the hot-seat last year when he briefly
stepped in for the then regular skipper Daniel Vettori, who for the sake
of team balance sat out a few matches so that Muttiah Muralitharan
could represent RCB. Kohli will surely miss chief mentor Anil Kumble,
who has moved to the Mumbai Indians camp, but in coach Ray Jennings, the
skipper has a solid support-base. Like in the past, the team is driven
by its batting that features Gayle, Tillakaratne Dilshan, Kohli and A.B.
de Villiers. Gayle with his 170.17 strike rate and 1,341 runs, has been
the force-multiplier for RCB besides stirring up the local fans, who
have overwhelmingly embraced him as one of their own.
That Kohli, RCB’s highest run-getter (1,639), the adventurous de
Villiers, who caned fellow South African Dale Steyn during last year’s
league, and the maverick Dilshan, all play secondary roles to Gayle is
just a testament to the Jamaican’s pulverising strength with the bat. A
bristling top-order may be RCB’s strength but that cannot mask its soft
underbelly despite the faith invested in Saurabh Tiwary, while
Cheteshwar Pujara, though not a regular in the playing eleven, has been
ruled out for the first set of matches due to a fractured finger.
It would also be interesting to see how RCB strikes a balance while
fielding four foreigners in the eleven as Gayle, de Villiers and Dilshan
are almost certainties though the last named has been benched a few
times to make way for an extra overseas bowler.
RCB’s bowling, meanwhile, is shadowed by the injuries that plagued its
key speedsters (Zaheer Khan and Ravi Rampaul) over the past year, though
Jennings believes that his attack will deliver.
The spin department has three experienced men in Muralitharan, Vettori
and Murali Kartik while seamers R. Vinay Kumar and Abhimanyu Mithun
along with batsman Mayank Agarwal, lend the local flavour. Australian
all-rounders Daniel Christian and Moises Henriques also lend extra
options to the team management.
All in all RCB is good to last the distance.
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