IPL auction 2017: Ishant Sharma could be the solution to Royal Challengers Bangalore’s fast bowling woes
When a cricket fan who doesn’t follow the Indian Premier League looks at the team line-ups of all the IPL sides, they would assume that Royal Challengers Bangalore would have won the tournament at least once. But in reality, the Vijay Mallya-owned franchise is yet to get their hands on the coveted trophy.
Royal Challengers Bangalore’s star-studded line-up
The Bangalore-based franchise has the best T20 batsman (Chris Gayle), the best batsmen across all three formats (AB de Villiers and Virat Kohli), the best fast bowler currently (Mitchell Starc), one of the best T20 all-rounders (Shane Watson) and the number 3 bowler in T20Is (Samuel Badree) in their ranks. In spite of having these players, they somehow manage to choke in crucial situations.
No T20 team across the world can match the batting might of RCB, but they are often let down by the bowlers. One area which they lack is local talent in the fast bowling department. The fans will hope that the franchise and the team management will find a solution to overcome their fast bowling woes in the upcoming auction.
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This is how Royal Challengers Bangalore go into the IPL auction:
Players retained: Virat Kohli, Yuzvendra Chahal, Harshal Patel, Mandeep Singh, KL Rahul, Sarfaraz Khan, Kedar Jadhav, Sreenath Aravind, Stuart Binny, Sachin Baby, Iqbal Abdullah, Avesh Khan, AB de Villiers, Chris Gayle, Mitchell Starc, Adam Milne, Shane Watson, Travis Head, Samuel Badree, Tabraiz Shamsi
Players released: Varun Aaron, Abu Nechim, David Wiese, Kane Richardson, Vikramjeet Malik, Praveen Dubey, Akshay Karnewar, Vikas Tokas, Parvez Rasool, Chris Jordan
What do RCB need in the IPL auction
The RCB think-tank has released Indian international, Varun Aaron, along with Abu Nechim Ahmed, Vikramjeet Malik and Vikas Tokas. In the retained list, they only have Sreenath Aravind and Avesh Khan as the Indian pacers and both these bowlers are not capable of leading their pace attack.
In all likelihood, Virat Kohli will expect the team management to sign a good Indian bowler.
Options available: Irfan Pathan, Ishant Sharma, Nathu Singh, Jaydev Unadkat and RP Singh.
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Why is Ishant Sharma the solution to Royal Challengers Bangalore’s fast bowling woes?
The Bengaluru franchise have limited options going into the auction with Irfan Pathan and Ishant Sharma being the favourites to play under Virat Kohli. Irfan will bring an extra edge as he is capable of contributing with the bat. Ishant, on the other hand, has improved a lot in the limited-over formats in the last couple of years and will be a safer option for RCB as he is Kohli’s go-to pacer in the Indian Test team.
Ishant is experienced enough to lead a pace attack and is performing well for Delhi in the ongoing Inter-Zonal T20 tournament. The lanky pacer averages 34 with the ball in this format and concedes 7.75 runs every over, which is quite decent for a bowler who bowls inside the field restriction overs and also in the death.
He is capable of swinging the new ball and has worked on his yorker in the recent months, which will come in handy in this format. He also gives Virat Kohli an option of bowling Mitchell Starc in the death overs.
Ishant was one of the 11 players released by Rising Pune Supergiants after just their first season in the IPL as they are looking to complete overhaul. It won’t be a surprise if the Men in Red go all out for both Ishant and Pathan in the upcoming auction.