IPL 2018: 4 dark horses who can change RCB's fortunes
The Royal Challengers Bangalore are yet to secure an IPL title even after having quite a few heavy-weights in their squad. They have made some promising starts in the tournament and absolutely dominated proceeding in some games but they struggled for the most part and lost matches in clusters. In spite of having big fishes like Virat Kohli, AB de Villiers, Mitchell Starc and Chris Gayle, RCB failed to make an impact on a uniform basis and lacked consistency. They choked at the critical junctures of the tournament and lost quite a few times in the deciders.
Their paramount concern has been the lack of consistency from the Indian players, and except for the skipper Virat Kohli and Yuzvendra Chahal, no one was up to the scratch.
In the IPL, as little as four overseas players are permitted to feature in the playing eleven and the performance of the Indians, mostly the uncapped youngsters can turn out to be the deciding element in the tournament. Successful franchises like Mumbai Indians and Chennai Super Kings have invariably relied on their Indian players more than the overseas players to do the job.
Unlike the years went by, this year, the men in red have invested a fair amount in the Indian players, particularly in a few underrated players who have got the potential to make a difference and can create an impression in this year's IPL. RCB will be hoping that their Indian players come to the party, and change their fate.
Presenting the 4 dark horses who can change RCB's fortunes.
#4 Navdeep Saini
The 25-year-old right-arm medium pacer from Delhi caught a lot of eyes in the 2017-18 Ranji Trophy season and played a massive role in Delhi's success as they went on to make it to the finals of the Ranji Trophy, but unfortunately lost to Vidarbha in the finals.
The young lad bowls at a steady pace and concedes runs at a sensational economy rate of 6.03 in domestic T20's. He was a part of the Delhi Daredevils squad in IPL 2017 but didn't get a game, but this year things are likely to take a turn for him.
A lot of RCB's hopes will rest on his performance as they don't have a front-line Indian seamer in their ranks, and the kind of nick he has been in domestic cricket he might well end up getting the new ball in his hand.