Team composition
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Total EFscore of top 11 players: 0.820
Total EFscore of all ranked players: 0.820
The biggest strength of Royal Challengers Bangalore is also its biggest weakness. They have the most explosive batting lineup among all the teams, headed by Chris Gayle, AB de Villiers and Virat Kohli. They just showered 2.3 million dollars to bring Yuvraj Singh into the team. However, there is very little batting depth in the team beyond these four. An injury or loss of form to one of the top four can prove to be a big blow to the team.
The Royal Challengers Bangalore are putting a lot of stock in the “unproven” players. As many as nine of their players did not play in the previous year’s IPL. The team was a bit frugal in spending money beyond Yuvraj Singh and Mitchell Starc, and instead went bargain shopping during the IPL player auction. The result of this strategy is a top-heavy team with a big fat tail of not-so-good players.
Roster management: The team will have to do some juggling with the overseas players. Gayle and de Villiers are shoo-in, and the remaining two spots for overseas players will likely be taken by bowlers, for which the candidates are Ravi Rampaul, Albie Morkel, Muralidharan and Mitchell Starc. These four together could have been a formidable bowling attack by themselves, but only two of them will be able to play. Shadab Jakati and Varun Aaron are expected to fill up the remaining bowling slots in the team.
Dark horse: Yuvraj Singh showed flashes of brilliance during the just-concluded World T20 tournament, however he faced severe criticism for his slow scoring rate in the final match. This is a great opportunity for him to salvage some pride, and his off-spin bowling should also come in handy on the slow pitches in the tournament.