IPL 2020 Auction: 3 areas of concern for RCB and who they should target
The trade window ahead of the IPL 2020 auction saw quite a few players shifting franchises as six of the eight franchises - barring the Chennai Super Kings and Royal Challengers Bangalore - opted to make use of the opportunity to sort out their strategies ahead of the auction on 19 December 2019 in Kolkata.
Post the deadline day of the trading window, the list of released and retained players created quite a buzz, but none like the strategy played by RCB, who opted to release 12 players, including the likes of seasoned pacer Dale Steyn, West Indian big-hitting youngster Shimron Hetmyer and Australian all-rounder Marcus Stoinis.
Having retained just two foreign players in AB de Villiers and Moeen Ali apart from big names such as Virat Kohli, Yuzvendra Chahal and Shivam Dube, RCB will easily be the busiest team in the auction, needing to fill 12 player slots, including six overseas players' slots.
With a purse worth ₹27.90 Crore in hand, RCB might not have the luxury of breaking the bank to secure the services of quality players, and they will certainly need to play it smart to beef up their side with some useful additions.
On that note, we take a look at three areas which RCB will need to target in the player auction.
#3 A batting anchor in the middle order
With RCB having retained Parthiv Patel, Virat Kohli and 19-year-old sensation Devdutt Padikkal, they certainly have multiple options to get them off to a good start at the top of the order.
However, with their batting having revolved around Kohli and de Villiers for a majority of the past few seasons, RCB might look to sign an Indian or foreign batsman who can stitch together useful knocks and play the role of the anchor in the middle order.
While they have had specialist middle-order batsmen such as Shimron Hetmyer, Mandeep Singh among others in the recent past, none of them have been able to stay at the crease for long, a major outcome of which the lower middle order has been exposed early.
Hence, in this auction, RCB could target someone like Robin Uthappa, Rahul Tripathi or Eoin Morgan, who are all capable of taking the game till the slog overs, post which the big-hitters can take over and launch at the death.