The Cricketer's quickfire look at RCB ahead of the 2022 season
Captain: Faf du Plessis
Coach: Sanjay Bangar
How did they do last year: 4th
Overseas headliner?
This is a tie between new signing Faf du Plessis and Glenn Maxwell, who scored a combined 1,146 runs (12 half-centuries) last season.
Indian superstar?
He’s no longer captain but Virat Kohli is still a superstar.
The IPL’s all-time leading run-scorer, he has scored fewer than 400 runs in a season just once since 2015.
Biggest strength?
RCB have a highly experienced top three, with du Plessis joining Kohli and Maxwell, and an intimidating pace attack, featuring Josh Hazlewood, Mohammed Siraj and last season’s leading wicket-taker Harshal Patel. David Willey and Jason Behrendorff add further depth.
Where’s the weakness?
Beyond du Plessis, Kohli and Maxwell – who use up two of the four overseas slots – RCB’s batting quickly tails off.
Maxwell and Dinesh Karthik, the only standout Indian name among the remaining batters, will bear the brunt of the middle-order responsibility and the loss of Devdutt Padikkal could come back to haunt them.
Squad: Virat Kohli, Glenn Maxwell, Mohammed Siraj, Faf du Plessis, Harshal Patel, Wanindu Hasaranga, Dinesh Karthik, Anuj Rawat, Shahbaz Ahamad, Akash Deep, Josh Hazlewood, Mahipal Lomror, Finn Allen, Sherfane Rutherford, Jason Behrendorff, Suyash Prabhudessai, Chama Milind, Aneeshwar Gautam, Karn Sharma, Siddharth Kaul, Luvnith Sisodia, David Willey
Likely starting XI: Faf du Plessis, Virat Kohli, Anuj Rawat, Glenn Maxwell, Mahipal Lamror, Dinesh Karthik, Wanindu Hasaranga, Shahbaz Ahmed, Harshal Patel, Josh Hazlewood, Mohammed Siraj
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