IPL 2019: 3 key overseas players for Royal Challengers Bangalore

The 12th edition of Indian Premier League is set to begin on the 23rd march and the excitement levels are at their peak. The first match of the tournement will be between the defending champions Chennai Super Kings and Royal Challengers Bangalore in Chennai.

RCB were the runners-up in 2009, 2011 and 2016 but have never managed to lift the trophy. Last season, they finished at 6th position in the table with six wins and eight losses. Despite not winning the big prize, the franchaise's players have won the orange cap thrice and two Most Valuable Player titles.

RCB hold the record for both the highest and lowest team totals in the history of the competition. They registered the highest total of 263 against Pune Warriors in 2013 while they scored the lowest total of 49 against Kolkata Knight Riders in 2017.

RCB has always been known for their power-packed batting line-up. Although, they always lacked the mojo in the bowling department. This year the team look well-balanced and they will be hoping to do their best under the leadership of Virat Kohli.

Here, let's have a look at 3 key overseas players for RCB in this edition of IPL

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#3 Nathan Coulter-Nile

Coulter-Nile has 36 IPL wickets from 26 matches

The 31-year-old Nathan Coulter-Nile from Western Australia is a key member of Australia's limited over's team at the moment. He played for Perth Scorchers in the recent edition of Big Bash League and picked up 14 wickets from 13 matches at an average of 27.10 and has an economy rate of 7.45.

He was a part of the Australian squad that toured India this month. In the T20 series against, he picked four wickets in the two matches. He also featured in a couple of ODI's and took 3 wickets in them. Overall, he has taken 41 ODI wickets from 24 matches and 34 T20I wickets from 28 matches.

In IPL, Coulter-Nile has represented Mumbai Indians in 2013, Delhi Daredevils from 2014 to 2016, Kolkata Knight Riders in 2017 and joined RCB last year but could not feature due to an injury. In his last outing in 2017, he picked 15 wickets from eight matches for KKR. He has a total of 36 IPL wickets from 26 matches. He is expected to lead the bowling attack for RCB this year and Virat Kohli will hope the right-arm pacer can solve his problems in the bowling department.

#2 Shimron Hetmyer

Shimron Hetmyer

22-year-old Shimron Hetmyer is one most exciting batsman in World Cricket at the moment. He holds the record for the youngest batsman to hit a century in the Caribbean Premier League. He achieved this feat in last year and scored 440 runs in that edition to finish third in the leading run-getters list.

Hetmyer was also the captain of the West Indies U-19 team, which won the World Cup in 2016. He made his ODI debut against New Zealand in 2017 and averages 40.86 in 25 matches. He has an impressive strike rate of110.30 and has scored four centuries and two fifties in short international career.

Despite scoring a century, he had a poor ODI and T20 series against England recently. He managed to score only 32 runs from three T20Is and 141 runs from four 50 over games.

He entered auction with a base price of 50 lakhs but Royal Challengers Bangalore had to spent ₹4.2 crores to secure his service having earned a name for himself by impressing everyone in the series against India.

#1 Marcus Stoinis

Stoinis has a batting average of 44.14 in ODIs

Marcus Stoinis earned a move to Royal Challengers Banglore after a trade with Kings XI punjab. He is an all-rounder who can bat in the middle order and bowl medium pace. This is the reason which hencemakes him an extremely useful player in the shortest format. His batting skills are evident by his impressive average of 43.04 from 28 ODI appearances.

Stoinis played for Melbourne Stars in the last edition of Australia's Big Bash League. He scored 494 runs in 12 innings at an average of 54.89 and strike of 133.51 for the stars's. He also picked up 14 wickets in the competition

However, his IPL numbers have been not so impressive. In 19 matches he has scored only 262 runs and picked up just 13 wickets. In the recently concluded T20 matches against India, he had a poor run and failed to meet expectations but he came into his own in the ODI sereies by scoring 140 runs and picking up two wickets in four matches.

Stoinis is expected to be RCB's key all-rounder this year and will have a huge responsibility on his shoulders. It will be interesting to see if he can improve his record in the league. .