Being honest about RCB's chances this IPL - No miracles expected

Can Virat Kohli-led RCB finally go the distance?

With the first leg of T20 overkill done and dusted in Bangladesh, the second one, internationally acclaimed domestic T20 cricket aka the IPL is all set to begin in UAE. So here comes the multizillion dollar question:

“What should one expect from the Royal Challengers of Bangalore this time around?”

A few frowns, a few sighs and more than a few outrages with my inner club cricket goddess self later I can tell you, well let’s not expect a lot. For the impatient, qualifying for the play-offs looks like quite a big ask. Before I jump to my predictions, let’s have a look at the cutlery we have been offered by Dr. Mallya, with love.

Oh Yuvi, oh..

Is it too soon to address ourselves as disgruntled fans? Because I’m pretty clueless about our marquee signing. Even more so, after four very painful hours of twenty-twenty cricket contested between India and Sri Lanka at the World T20 finals. Even more, more so after seeing our-supposed-to-be-the-trump-card-of-the-season eating twenty one balls, Virat Kohli’s patience and the cup. Even more, more, more so after visualizing him having a tournament like that for RCB in my mental HD.

I nearly got a coronary but let’s just stop there.

Who is Yuvraj Singh to us? Inside each of us, we have a special place for him. The man who won us two World Cups and countless matches. The man who showed us what a comeback means. The man who gave us memories, the man who inspired a generation.

But the fairytale ends here. A fairytale on general notions, and not certainly on cricketing ones. Or rather not acceptable on cricketing terms. He has forgotten consistency which was once his element in contributing to the team when he was most needed – 352 runs, 15 wickets, Man of the tournament in WC 2011 and a couple of unbelievable knocks, 148 runs, a wicket in T20 WC 2007.

However, things for him have been pretty quiet or rather poor for a considerably long time now. A below par ODI run or his ever terrible IPL run doesn’t bode well with our expectations. Well, what’s next? Forget the terrible 21-ball 11 against Sri Lanka in the final. I am sure you would have forgotten the nervy chase against WI in the group stages. Now let’s hope he continues his decent, if not good, run in T20Is scoring 401 runs at an average of 30.84 in 17 matches. When everyone wrote him off, he staged an unthinkable comeback. Comebacks are always alluring but to make it happen again and again makes it even more sweet. We haven’t seen your last. We want to believe.

We believe in you. Your cricket. Your abilities.

Let’s have some drumrolls. Can we say, Come on Yuvi!

It’s not all gloomy. It’s partially the best fireworks you could buy in the Diwali market.

#TEAMBEASTMODE

Virat Kohli and AB de Villiers – the best in business

There is nothing much to say about Virat Kohli and AB de Villiers, is there? These two are exceptional players, both of them likely the greatest players of this generation. Their grace and their exploits are so outrageous that it seems like other teams will ask authorities to drop them for level playing field. The joke is, it is not even an over exaggeration here.

We also have a Superman who re-invented himself since the 3rd season of IPL, and who has been providing us power hitting since then. The Superman or rather WHAT-HE-EATS-MAN we are talking about is from Jamaica and is called Christopher Henry Gayle – the only one to have scored 11 T20 centuries and also holds the record of scoring maximum number of sixes in the same format. Having scored over 600 runs in the last three seasons – being the only man to do so in the history of IPL, we can put our expectations on the big man to do for the fourth straight season.

Bowling, I don’t even..

RCB, popularly Royal Chokers, are suitable for the tag – ‘South Africa of IPL’. While the choking part holds up, the thing is RCB never had a great team, unlike South Africa. They would probably top the ‘swag’ table with the likes of Virat Kohli, Chris Gayle and AB de Villiers, but that isn’t everything with rest of the team reduced to mere fillers in the team sheet more often than not.

Always top heavy-with the above three scoring nearly 70% of team runs last season, they never had a bowler capable of running through the batting line-up let alone a bowling attack. The sad story here is team management doing little to mend the glorious errors of predecessors ending up increasing the weight of already heavy top order.

When you look at the depth SRH possess – Steyn, Mishra, Sammy, Irfan, Rasool, Karn Sharma, Ishant – in bowling we are nowhere near. But considering Vinays and Mithuns and Arvinds of past seasons, we have a far better attack with an able leader- Lankier than the scariest Johnson, he strikes at a better rate than Dale Steyn, possessing an average that would make Malinga jealous.

Mitchell Starc, with a T20 average and strike rate of 15.34 and 13.1, the leader of the pack, will be the bowler to watch in this season. In Varun Aaron we have a lot of hope and pace and we should ensure our prayers make Ashok Dinda bowl better than what he is used to. There are many chances that our prayers will be answered considering who is presiding over the bowling department – Allan Donald.

But to be honest, it’s all old rum in new bottle, making the best use of the resources.

Well, where is the spin? In flat and dry tracks of UAE and India?

Only God knows.

So then…

Daniel Vettori, the coach or mentor, whose main task was to find a good spinner in auctions, failed miserably picking a burned out Muralitharan and a 33-year-old Jakati with one good IPL season. While Muralitharan managed to pick three wickets at an average of 59.00, owner of the worst figures in RCB, Jakati didn’t manage to get a game for CSK last season. Now Vettori has no choice but to extract something with a rookie in Yuzvendra Chahal or expect 2011 WC magic from Yuvraj Singh.

RCB lack that one great option in the spin department, but if Yuvraj Singh gets going, his left-arm orthodox can really trouble batsmen

The chances of RCB lies on how much Virat Kohli, the captain, can push the bowlers and the team. We all know what he is capable of. He almost successfully defended low scores in Asia Cup, with equally poor bowling attack, which we would never have imagined had it not been for him. The shrewd bowling changes were only let down by fielding efforts which were a huge factor even in the last season of IPL. No one better than Virat knows how dangerous it is to drop a catch, the game and a play-off spot.

Though our bowling and fielding is built on heaps of hope and only that, batting department is probably the best in the league. In Virat, ABDV and Gayle you have three best batsmen in this format. With these three taking up all the scoring burden usually, the new additions Parthiv Patel, capable of splitting powerplay field, and Yuvraj – we know what he is capable of – add more steel to the batting.

The arrival of Parthiv Patel is of huge importance here as it helps in more than one way. First of all – AB de Villiers could be relieved from keeping duties, thus adding a tremendous fielder to the outfield and then a settled batting order. In Parthiv there is a good support to the ever-explosive Gayle at the top to ensure the dynamic hitters – Virat Kohli, ABDV and Yuvraj – get a solid platform to take charge.

Apart from all this, at the end of the day, qualifying for play-offs depends on how Yuvraj Singh expresses himself with the ball. Slow left arm is a gold mine in T20s and if he could get his bowling form back we’ve got another reliable wicket-taking bowler in addition to Starc.

Best XI

What would the best eleven look like? You can’t trust the team management to put one in place, especially after they made Dan Christian play a game or two. Maybe Virat Kohli and co. have a syndrome of going for reputation rather than form. Nothing could explain why Murali played that many games. They will come up entirely with a different, odd or if you can say, stupid, line-up.

Cursing the team management again, this is the best XI we could propose -

Chris Gayle, Parthiv Patel, Virat Kohli, AB de Villiers, Yuvraj Singh, Vijay Zol, Ravi Rampaul, Mitchell Starc, Shadab Jakati, Asoke Dinda, Varun Aaron.

Ladies and gentlemen,

Let’s not expect too much. Too many heartbreaks in a short span of time is pretty bad for our cricketing health. Let’s hope for the best, cross our No.18 jerseys, offer the purest prayer to our Gods. Let’s believe we might if we can seems too far away. Let’s have faith in the modern day demi gods. Let’s do it.

After all, you never know what is on the cards in this game of cricket. Do you?