IPL 2019: Three unsold players who could have helped RCB qualify for the playoffs

Royal Challengers Bangalore endued yet another difficult season as they crashed out of the tournament in the league stage itself again. They lost each of their first 6 games and were on the verge of creating an unwanted record. Their weaknesses were exposed in the very first game itself when they were bundled out for 70 against CSK.

Even before they played half of their games, it was quite obvious that they would be knocked out in the group stage itself. They managed to paper over their cracks with 4 wins in the next 5 games, but their loss against Delhi Capitals derailed their campaign. Their next game against RR was washed out and that ended their extremely slim hopes of qualifying for the playoffs.

They were particularly weak in some areas of the game, and they would have regretted some of the decisions made at the auction. Here's a look at three unsold players who could have helped RCB qualify for the playoffs.

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#3 Manoj Tiwary

Image credits: IPLT20/BCCI

Manoj Tiwary is an IPL veteran and has been a part of the tournament since the beginning. He has been a part of the Indian Premier League on 10 occasions, and his experience is something that most teams would have wanted. However, the middle-order batsman failed to find any takers at his base price of ₹50 lakh.

RCB bought Shivam Dube for a massive ₹5 crore, but he failed to do anything of note. Even Akshdeep Nath couldn't set the stage on fire, and the team lacked a proper Indian batsman in the middle-order.

Tiwary was excellent for RPS in 2017 and excelled for them in multiple roles. However, he couldn't replicate the same performances in the next season for KXIP as he didn't get enough chances. The 33-year-old has an average of 29.08 and has a strike rate of 116 in T20 cricket.

Someone with Manoj Tiwary's ability would have been a massive addition to the playing XI and his experience might have helped them swing a couple of results in their favor.

#2 Aniket Choudhary

Image credits: IPLT20/BCCI

Aniket Choudhary is easily one of the best left-arm pacers in India at present. He has good pace and can clock speeds in excess of 135 kph. Due to his height, he can also extract bounce and trouble opposition batsmen. In addition, he has ability to move the ball both ways and has a good mix of cutters and slower balls.

He has had a phenomenal domestic season for Rajasthan and performed exceedingly well in the Ranji Trophy and Syed Musthaq Ali Trophy. In the recently concluded Mushtaq Ali tournament, he picked up 7 wickets in 5 games at a strike rate of 15.4. He had a brilliant economy rate of 6.22, which is impressive for someone who bowls in the powerplay and at the death.

In his T20 career, he has picked up 54 wickets in 44 games at a strike rate of 17.7 and has an economy rate of 7.39. RCB's Indian pace bowlers were off-color for most of the tournament and nobody was able to support Navdeep Saini. In such a scenario, having Choudhary in their team might have proved to be helpful.

#1 James Faulkner

BBL - Hurricanes v Strikers

James Faulkner was one of the best T20 all-rounders a few years back, but he has seen a rapid decline in his career. However, he looked like he was back to his best in the most recent edition of the Big Bash, where he picked up 18 wickets in 13 games at a strike rate of 15.6. He had a reasonable economy rate of 8.39 and bowled well during all stages of the game.

He was pretty good in the first 6 overs during the powerplay and was pretty good at the back-end of the innings as well. He is known for his death bowling and has an excellent armory of slower balls. He has picked up 214 wickets in 187 games at a strike rate of 17.6 and has an economy rate of 7.96 in T20 cricket. He is also a handy batsman and has an average of 22.51 to go with a strike rate of 122.39.

RCB's bowling was poor at the death and they didn't have anybody who could support Navdeep Saini during the final overs. Faulkner would have been the perfect foil for Saini with his slower balls and could have restricted the flow of runs during the death overs.