IPL 2018: 6 possible batsmen who could solve Royal Challengers Bangalore's opening dilemma
The Royal Challengers Bangalore team is known to spend a lot of money at the auction and buy the most expensive players. The team already possesses players like Virat Kohli and AB de Villers in their side, but this year, they had a very strange auction.
They tried to fill up all the gaps in their squad and in doing so, they improved their bowling unit, which was always a big concern for them. They now possess the likes of Nathan Coulter Nile, Chris Woakes, Washington Sundar, Yuzvendra Chahal, Pawan Negi, Umesh Yadav, and Colin de Grandhomme, all who could dismantle any batting side.
However, they concentrated too much on the openers while picking batsmen and now they have six to seven players who could open for them. This resulted in a weak and uneven batting order. Now, they might have a lot of confusion which pair they should pick for the opening positions. Here are the openers that can open for RCB :
Parthiv Patel :
Parthiv Patel was picked by RCB for Rs 1.7 crore at the auction as they wanted an Indian wicketkeeper-batsman in their ranks. He was associated with Chennai Super Kings for the first three years of IPL, after which he moved to Kochi Tuskers Kerala. He then was bought by the Deccan Chargers at the IPL Auctions in 2012.
In 2014, he was bought by RCB but was traded to the Mumbai Indians in 2015. That year, MI won the title and Parthiv made an important contribution at the top of the order. In 2017, he scored 395 runs in 16 matches at a strike rate of 134.81. The major problem with Parthiv is that he plays well till powerplays but after that, he is not able to accelerate the run rate.
So, in that way, he becomes both the asset and the anchor for the team. As RCB already has players like Brendon McCullum and Quinton de Kock in their side, it is possible that Parthiv would sit on the bench. They also have Mandeep Singh who can also play as a wicketkeeper for RCB.