IPL Auction 2020: RCB's auction tale and best playing XI analysis

The Virat Kohli-led franchise recently went through a huge shakeup in terms of their management, with Mike Hesson and Simon Katich taking charge as Director of Cricket Operations and head coach respectively. With new sheriffs in town, changes were expected, but what took place surprised one and all.

Royal Challengers Bangalore let go of 12 players before the auction, including big names such as Shimron Hetmyer, Dale Steyn and Marcus Stoinis. This meant that they were looking to rebuild the team, keeping the Indian core constant, along with the likes of Moeen Ali and AB de Villiers.

Chris Morris, Aaron Finch fetch lucrative contracts at the IPL 2020 Auction

In the IPL 2020 Auction that was held in Kolkata on the 19th of December, the Bangalore-based franchise were busy right from the start of the proceedings. Though they were outbid by other teams for players such as Pat Cummins, Alex Carey and Rahul Tripathi, they made big buys in the form of Chris Morris (₹10 crores), Aaron Finch (₹4.4 Crore), and Kane Richardson (₹4 crores).

Among other names, they also ended up buying Sri Lankan all-rounder Isuru Udana, Karnataka southpaw Pavan Deshpande and even re-signed Dale Steyn. RCB also bought exciting Australian youngster Joshua Phillippe, as well as domestic uncapped player Shahbaz Ahmad as wicket-keeping replacements for Parthiv Patel if need be.

What this effectively means for RCB is that they now have an explosive world-class opening batsman in Finch, a gun all-rounder in Morris who can be their finisher with the bat as well as bowl tight overs in the death.

Also in the mix is an international pacer in Kane Richardson who has proven his worth with Australia, an international replacement for Parthiv in Joshua Phillippe, a deal for the youngster which can be considered an absolute steal.

Dale Steyn was re-signed by RCB

In Dale Steyn, RCB also have a seamer with experience, who is nothing short of a legend. Despite certain concerns such as Morris's recent form, and Dale Steyn's fitness, The RCB unit looked quite happy with the buys that were made.

RCB's possible combination for IPL 2020

RCB's best bet would ideally be to open with Aaron Finch and Devdutt Padikkal, with the latter setting the domestic scene on fire ever since his Vijay Hazare debut.

But since they only have backups (read: unknown and untested wicket-keepers) for Parthiv, it is most likely that he will open the batting with Finch, while Padikkal will find a place in RCB's middle-order.

This means that Virat Kohli will take up the No.3 position again, which will ensure better depth in the batting line up with AB de Villiers coming in at No.4. The likes of Padikkal, Morris and Dube are likely to be the composition of the middle order, while Umesh Yadav, Navdeep Saini, Dale Steyn (if fit) and Chahal are likely to be the tail of RCB. This would effectively give the captain 7 batsmen, along with 6 bowling options.

The four foreigners that are most likely to be played are Finch, de Villiers, Morris and Steyn. Moeen Ali might not make the cut as RCB now have a solid top order, and Moeen's talents would be wasted batting at No.5 or below.

However, if they decide to go for an 'all Indian' bowling department replacing Steyn with Siraj, we might see Moeen Ali batting in the middle order, which would give RCB a flurry of world-class batsmen till No.5.

In reality, if Steyn is unfit, Richardson is most likely take his place and if they want to replace Parthiv, we could see the Australian wonderkid Joshua Phillippe coming into the mix.

All in all, RCB have fared decently in the auctions ahead of IPL 2020 and from just having ABD and Moeen Ali, they are back to having a problem of plenty. The new team management has looked to make massive changes and so far have taken the road less travelled, which might mean that we see a few surprises in their 2020 IPL campaign.