IPL 2019 – Match 7: Royal Challengers Bangalore vs Mumbai Indians – RCB Predicted Playing XI

After the disappointing IPL 2018, the Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) didn’t have a great start to the new season either. They faced the defending champions Chennai Super Kings (CSK) in the opener of IPL 2019 and bagged a massive embarrassment. The side misread the Chepauk pitch terribly and was bundled out for just 70 runs in the highly-anticipated encounter.

Now, after a decent amount of break, the team gears up for their home encounter against the Mumbai Indians (MI). With both these teams entering into this match after the losses in their respective previous games, they would be quite hungry for a win. Playing at a small stadium like the M Chinnaswamy, RCB will look to stock up their bowling department with some useful resources. So, who will make way for whom?

Here is the Predicted Playing XI for Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB):

Openers (Virat Kohli (C), Parthiv Patel (WK))

Virat Kohli is the best batsman in the RCB set-up and must open the innings. He should give himself a chance to face as many deliveries as possible as he can make a significant impact on the game. The 30-year-old skipper never really got going in the encounter against CSK but will be eyeing at a massive score playing at his favourite ground.

Wicket-keeper batsman Parthiv Patel will open the innings alongside Virat. He is someone who mostly assures the team a good start in the powerplay and usually scores in the late 20s and the 30s. Parthiv was RCB’s best batsman in their first game and he battled right till the end. But, he lacked support from the other end. He will also keep wickets in this side.

Middle Order (Moeen Ali, AB de Villiers, Shimron Hetmyer)

If RCB are to bring in an additional bowler, there will be a lot of onus on the middle order. They’ll need to bat with a lot of responsibility and also read the conditions well. With Marcus Stoinis still unavailable, Moeen Ali will continue at three. AB de Villiers will be following him next in the batting order at four. The South African hitting the ball in the air right after he was dropped off the previous ball surprised many in the last game.

De Villiers is ideally expected to anchor the innings and play some big shots towards the end. If the Indian batsmen like Virat Kohli struggled at the Chepauk, it seemed near impossible for a rookie from the Caribbean to make a mark, that too, on his IPL debut.

However, he got out in the most unfortunate of ways after a mix-up in the middle of the pitch. In all likelihood, Shimron Hetmyer will get another chance. He should enjoy playing at the Chinnaswamy where the boundaries are quite small.

All Rounders (Shivam Dube)

Shivam Dube also looked quite nervous on his IPL debut. He played a very rash shot against CSK and got out for just two runs. He was absolutely gutted with himself after this dismissal and will look to put up a better show this time. The youngster is highly talented and has the capability to smash some massive sixes. We couldn’t get to see much of him with the ball as he just bowled four deliveries in the last game.

Bowlers (Tim Southee, Umesh Yadav, Yuzvendra Chahal, Mohammed Siraj, Navdeep Saini)

RCB has got quite a strong batting line-up and it only makes sense when they back it up with some good bowling options. There is no point in the side putting up massive scores on the board when they can’t defend it. Especially when the opposition is Mumbai Indians who bat pretty deep, they shouldn’t look to take any chances. Thus, Tim Southee walks into the eleven in place of Colin de Grandhomme.

He is RCB’s best possible option at the death. If Navdeep Saini, who looked really impressive in the last match, can do well in the last few overs, the team will have an important box ticked. With the likes of Umesh Yadav, Yuzvendra Chahal, and Mohammed Siraj in there, the captain will have seven bowling options to look at and can use his resources as per the situation.

Here is RCB’s squad for IPL 2019

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