IPL 2019: Royal Challengers Bangalore full squad after the auction
RCB currently have 16 Indian and 7 overseas players in their ranks.
Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB), led by Virat Kohli, are one of the teams who are yet to get their hands on the coveted Indian Premier League (IPL). They played the final in 2009 and 2016, but were slapped with defeats by Deccan Chargers and Sunrisers Hyderabad respectively. The franchise has always boasted of some of the best batsmen in the business, but their bowlers have been found wanting.
Last year, they were lacklustre and failed to get themselves up from the bottom of the table. Ahead of the auction, they released five players and traded Quinton de Kock to Mumbai Indians, led by Rohit Sharma. With an available purse of 18.15 crore, they would want to strengthen their bowling unit. Also with the World Cup ahead, they need to bear in mind the availability of the players they are planning to target.
Two overseas players picked
The Virat Kohli-captained franchise started the auction, buying the hulk-like Shimron Hetmyer for 4.2 crores, who has been incredible for the Windies in limited-overs cricket in the last few months. Apart from him, they roped in Heinrich Klaasen, the South African cricketer, at his base price of 50 lakhs. He is expected to be the replacement of de Kock as a wicketkeeper-batsman.
Shivam Dube from Mumbai has been dominant in the domestic circuit and RCB didn’t miss out on buying him either at a price of 5 crores. They also included Devdutt Padikkal, who has tasted success, playing for India U19. Prayas Ray Barman, at the age of 15, became the youngest millionaire in the history of the IPL and was picked at 1.5 crores
Here’s the full 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, Gurkeerat Singh Mann, Devdut Padikkal, Shivam Dube, Heinrich Klaasen, Himmat Singh, Prayas Ray Barman, Akshdeep Nath, Milind Kumar, Marcus Stoinis
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