IPL 2018: Who should open for the Royal Challengers Bangalore?

The Royal Challengers Bangalore have a very strong squad heading into this year's IPL. Their batting unit is arguably the best in the tournament and this could be the year in which they finally win their maiden IPL title.

However, one of the downsides to having a deep squad is that it causes more selection headaches. This is something which RCB are experiencing at the moment.

The biggest selection dilemma they have is who should open for them. Indeed, Bangalore have six players who could potentially open for them: Virat Kohli, Manan Vohra, Quinton de Kock, Mandeep Singh, Parthiv Patel and Brendon McCullum.

Bangalore captain Virat Kohli tends to prefer to open in the IPL and so is likely to keep his spot at the top of the order again. Presuming that this is the case, there are five potential world-class opening partners at his disposal.

The overseas contenders

A superficial glance at the list would indicate that Brendon McCullum is a favourite to open since he is by far the most experienced and arguably the most explosive batsman on that list.

However, his recent form of form in the Pakistan Super League was far from impressive, as he failed to get a fifty in his last ten matches. Moreover, McCullum's IPL record last year was not as good as some other players on the list.

Brendon McCullum is not guaranteed a spot in this Bangalore XI

The other overseas player who is in contention to open the batting is South African keeper-batsman Quinton de Kock. The left-hander plays a very aggressive brand of cricket, shown by his Test strike rate of 70.

De Kock is coming into the tournament with a solid run of form behind him, as he hit two fifties in the Test series against Australia and had a good showing with the gloves.

It could be the case, though, that De Kock is fatigued after a very busy start to the year and may miss RCB's first game. Also, unlike the other players who could open for RCB, De Kock is known to be able to play well in the middle and lower order.

The Indian contenders

Out of the three Indian options, Mandeep Singh is the least likely to be picked. Mandeep had a pretty mediocre season last year, averaging just 18 with the bat in 11 matches.

His strike rate of 106 was far from impressive as well. When you combine this with poor recent domestic form, Mandeep is likely to miss out on the opening slot.

Mandeep Singh will struggle to get game time in the IPL this year

This leaves Parthiv Patel and Manan Vohra remaining. The one benefit Patel has over Vohra is that he is a keeper. However, this advantage could be ruled out if De Kock bats in the middle order and subsequently keeps for Bangalore.

Therefore, looking at batting alone, it is hard to discriminate between these two players. While Patel scored more runs than Vohra last year, the former Kings XI Punjab opener scored his runs at a much higher strike rate.

When considering that one of these two will be opening alongside Kohli, it would be useful to have a batsman with a higher strike rate. Without the immediate pressure to score, Kohli can take his time to build an innings - which he will then most likely convert into a big score. The debate over who should open is a serious one and a challenging one for RCB.

Conclusion

The optimal solution, it seems, would be to have Virat Kohli and Manan Vohra open the batting, with Quinton de Kock batting in the middle order. As a result, this means leaving out New Zealand legend Brendon McCullum and Parthiv Patel which may be seen as a controversial decision.