IPL 2018: Analysing Royal Challengers Bangalore squad

This year's IPL mega-auction saw all the owners and officials of the teams come under one roof. Coming into the auction, each team had a different set of plan and had previously used their retention choices accordingly. Many players found a new home, while a few stayed back.

Royal Challengers Bangalore were under the spotlight as they were coming on the back of a poor last season.They, as expected, retained Indian skipper Virat Kohli & AB de Villiers, but threw up a surprise by retaining Sarfaraz Khan. Coming into the auction RCB wanted to address their incessant problem, their Achilles' heel, the bowling department.

They ended up building quite a formidable squad and here's how their team shaped up.

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Batting

AB de Villiers, along with Virat Kohli, is a key player in RCB's batting line-up

Positives: RCB have always had a strong batting line-up and this season will be no different. They have made some great buys in Brendon McCullum and Quinton de Kock. The former is one batsman who can go all out right from the word go. They've got Indian batsmen Manan Vohra and Mandeep Singh, both of whom can score at a healthy strike rate.

Wicket-keeper batsman Parthiv Patel can come in and strike a few boundaries and up the scoring rate in no time. The RCB team bats deep and this relieves the pressure off Virat Kohli and AB de Villiers.

Negatives: Having as many as five openers means that Kohli must step down the order and not open the innings like he did for the past few seasons. As a team, you would always want your best batsman to face as many balls as possible, which in RCB's case is nearly impossible with the kind of openers they have. Although they bat deep, the batsmen will be under a lot of pressure to put up good scores or chase down huge totals when both Kohli and De Villiers fail.

Star Batsman: Skipper Kohli would undoubtedly be the key player for RCB. He will be going into the IPL on the back of a successful South African tour, where he hit four centuries across formats, three of which came in the ODIs alone. His tally of 4418 runs at an average of 37.44 is second only to Suresh Raina in the list of most runs scored in the IPL overall.

If he gets going, then any score is chase-able and the team would end up on the right side of the result nine out of ten times. If he can repeat an IPL 2016-like performance, then RCB will have a great chance at clinching their maiden IPL title.

Rating: 8.5/10

Bowling

Chahal will lead RCB's bowling attack

Positives: RCB made a statement by getting a big pool of bowlers.They got some exciting Indian talent in Mohammed Siraj, Aniket Choudhary, Kulwant Khejroliya and Murugan Ashwin. Siraj, the raw pacer from Hyderabad would be raring to do well for RCB after having a mediocre start to his international career.

Umesh Yadav, along with RCB's overseas buys, Tim Southee, Chris Woakes & Nathan Coulter-Nile, can trouble the batsmen with their swing and accurate bowling. Each of them has had successful IPL campaigns. Pawan Negi and Yuzvendra Chahal, on whom RCB used their RTM card, will be effective on the slow, re-laid surface of the Chinnaswamy stadium.

Negatives: The Indian bowlers, excluding Umesh Yadav and Yuzvendra Chahal, are vastly inexperienced. They hardly have any experience of bowling to players of international standards. If RCB opt to field three batsmen out of the available four overseas slots, then the Indian bowlers will have to deliver as only one of Southee, Coulter-Nile and Woakes would get a place in the playing XI. The inexperienced bowlers might crumble under pressure.

Star Bowler: Yuzvendra Chahal, will turn out in the RCB colours at their home, the Chinnaswamy stadium, where he earned the best-bowling figures for India in T20Is. He will be expected to repeat such match-winning performances for the team on a consistent basis.

Chahal has 70 wickets in his 56-match IPL career and has done really well in the IPL since being picked up by the RCB in 2014.

Rating: 6.5/10

Fielding

Brendon McCullum's electric fielding will keep the batsmen on their toes

Positives: RCB have one of the best fielding units in the IPL. McCullum, De Villiers and Virat are three players who can lift the team's spirit up and can light up the field with their exceptional fielding. In the past, we've seen Yadav, Southee and Coulter-Nile take some great catches and save runs for the team on the boundary line with their athletic skills. All in all, fielding is one of RCB's strong suits and we can expect quite a few brilliant fielding moments from them, going into this season of IPL.

Negatives: The team has a few slow fielders such as Sarfaraz Khan and Yuzvendra Chahal. Sarfaraz, who was found wanting in the field in the past, has worked hard on his fitness in the past two years and would want to translate those efforts on to the field. Chahal, on the other hand, seems to have buttery fingers. He dropped a few catches off his own bowling in the recently concluded South Africa tour.

Star Fielder: Brendon McCullum and AB de Villiers, without a doubt, are two of the best fielders to have played the game and they will lead the fielding scheme of things.

Rating: 9/10

Captaincy

Virat Kohli's pro-active captaincy has helped Team India attain success in all 3 formats of the game

Virat Kohli, the current Indian skipper, has more often than not made the right decisions during the crucial junctures of a game and has always seemed to handle his team well, whichever he captains. As a skipper, he is pro-active in the field and doesn't wait for things to happen.

With his constant field changes or chopping and changing of the bowlers, he makes the batsmen re-think their plans. His high-voltage energy in the field rubs off well on the team, helping them create chances out of nothing.

If Virat can remain calm and deal the pressure situations coolly, then his captainship skills could prove to be match-winning.

Coaching

Daniel Vettori will be under the spotlight

Daniel Vettori does not have much experience as a coach but has always played the role of a mentor during his playing days, be it for New Zealand or for RCB. It would be a challenge for him to bring this star-studded RCB team together and help them have a successful season after a sub-par previous season.

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RCB have got most of their bases covered, and it's up to the players to convert their potential into performances. Although they have a relatively weaker bowling unit when compared to a few other IPL teams, if they get all of their plans right and their key players perform consistently, then they might win their maiden IPL title this year.