IPL 2019: What should be RCB's ideal playing XI

Royal Challengers Bangalore is one of the most followed teams in the Indian Premier League. Though they haven't won the title, they attract a lot of support at the Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bangaluru.

RCB have released some key players before the 2019 auction with the likes of Brendon McCullum, Quinton de Kock, and Chris Woakes shown the door. However, they have made some great buys at the auction.

Shimron Hetmyer is definitely a player to watch out for in IPL 2019. Shivam Dube is another player who has attracted a lot of attention at the auction.

RCB squad: Virat Kohli, AB de Villiers, Parthiv Patel, Yuzvendra Chahal, Tim Southee, Umesh Yadav, Navdeep Saini, Kulwant Khejroliya, Washington Sundar, Pawan Negi, Nathan Coulter-Nile, Moeen Ali, Mohammed Siraj, Colin de Grandhomme, Shimron Hetmyer, Devdutt Padikkal, Shivam Dube, Heinrich Klassen, Gurkeerat Singh, Himmat Singh, Prayas Ray Barman.

Here in this article, we take a look at RCB's ideal playing XI for IPL 2019.

Openers: Parthiv Patel and Virat Kohli

Parthiv Patel has been a part of the Indian Premier League ever since its inception in 2008. He has played 125 games in IPL and scored 2475 runs. He played six games for RCB in 2018 and scored 153 runs at an average of 30.60. RCB released Quinton de Kock and Brendon McCullum, and Parthiv is expected to step up for them this season.

Virat Kohli is expected to open the batting and lead the team once again in IPL 2019. Though he has been brilliant with the bat in the tournament, the Indian captain has failed to deliver an IPL title for his franchise so far. Kohli is 52 short of 5000 runs in IPL and only behind Suresh Raina in the all-time run scorers list. Though he does not open the batting in international cricket, he has done it for RCB in the past and enjoyed a lot of success.

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