RCB Playing 11 2022: RCB Probable Playing 11 2022 IPL

RCB Playing 11 2022: Royal Challengers Bangalore have bought the second-lowest number of players after spending the third-lowest amount of money.

Indian Premier League franchise Royal Challengers Bangalore have spent a total of INR 55.45 crore to buy 19 players in a two-day mega auction which concluded in Bengaluru yesterday.

Adding three retained players from IPL 2021, Royal Challengers’ IPL 2022 expenditure mounts to INR 88.45 crore. In what is the third-lowest amount among 10 franchises, RCB have bought the second-lowest number of players (22) for this season.

While RCB were wise enough to retain the likes of former captain Virat Kohli, all-rounder Glenn Maxwell and fast bowler Mohammed Siraj before the auction, they did exceedingly well to buy back the likes of Harshal Patel, Wanindu Hasaranga, Shahbaz Ahmed, Finn Allen, Suyash Prabhudesai and Akash Deep.

Despite some of these players being inexperienced, bringing back same players is usually a sign of a positive team environment where even rookie players are trusted upon.

It goes without saying that both Bangalore’s team management and fans will duly miss players such as AB de Villiers, Yuzvendra Chahal and Devdutt Padikkal in the 15th season of the IPL. However, this is where RCB’s new signings will have to step up to fill the void.

RCB Playing 11 2022

Former South Africa captain Faf du Plessis is the sixth-highest run-scorer among overseas batters in the IPL – playing the lowest number of matches (100) among them. du Plessis, who has represented Chennai Super Kings and Rising Pune Supergiants in the past, can be a like-for-like replacement for his childhood friend de Villiers at RCB. While 41 out of his 50 T20I innings have come at No. 3, a large majority of his IPL innings have come as an opening batter.

Hence, sending him as Kohli’s opening partner wouldn’t be a bad idea. Royal Challengers, who had provided opportunities to Rajat Patidar and Srikar Bharat at No. 3 last season, should continue to play an Indian batter at this position. With Mahipal Lomror and Anuj Rawat among their additions, both can be their two Indian batters (at different batting positions though) in place of Bharat and Padikkal with Prabhudesai and Aneeshwar Gautam as backup options.

While Hasaranga can occupy the position of an overseas all-rounder, veteran wicket-keeper batter Dinesh Karthik will add truckload of experience to their middle-order.

Unlike the batting department, Bangalore’s bowling won’t require a lot of pondering as each one of them is an obvious pick at least in the first few matches. Siraj and IPL 2021’s highest wicket-taker Patel will be joined by Australia fast bowler Josh Hazlewood with another Australian pacer in Jason Behrendorff as a reserve.

As mentioned above, there is no hiding to the fact that Chahal will be sorely missed. That being said, Ahmed should consider this as an apt time to repay the team management’s backing and faith.

England all-rounder David Willey might not feature in the initial matches but expect him to play some role in RCB’s IPL 2022 campaign. Considering how both Willey and Patel bat in the top-order for their respective state teams, an astute occasional batting promotion could work in Bangalore’s favour at some point in IPL 2022.

RCB Predicted Playing 11 for IPL 2022 match – 1) Faf du Plessis 2) Virat Kohli 3) Mahipal Lomror 4) Glenn Maxwell 5) Dinesh Karthik (wk) 6) Anuj Rawat 7) Wanindu Hasaranga 8) Harshal Patel 9) Shahbaz Ahmed 10) Mohammed Siraj 11) Josh Hazlewood

RCB captain 2022 IPL

Royal Challengers’ think-tank might have put together a 22-member squad but their work doesn’t end here as they are still left with a daunting task of picking a captain. Although they have a few options to pick from, no one appears to be an automatic choice based on past record.

RCB, who will have a new captain after almost a decade, have a straightforward choice in 37-year old du Plessis provided his age isn’t an issue for them.

Maxwell, who has been leading Melbourne Stars in the Big Bash League for four seasons now, is another candidate for captaincy. However, one wouldn’t want to change anything with a player who has just managed to find form in the IPL. Maxwell, who was RCB’s highest run-scorer last season, had scored 400+ runs in an IPL season for the first time in seven years.

Karthik, 36, who has led Delhi Daredevils (now Capitals) and Kolkata Knight Riders in 43 IPL matches with a 50% success rate, is another option with optimum knowledge of Indian players.

That being said, if Royal Challengers have an aim of grooming a youngster as a captain with an eye on the future, Lomror is a fitting player to hand the responsibility. Lomror, who has played 131 competitive matches across formats in his just over five-year career, is coming on the back of spending four years at Rajasthan Royals.

In the latest season of Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy, Lomror had led Rajasthan to the quarterfinals whilst scoring 231 runs in six innings at an average and strike rate of 46.20 and 124.19 respectively. In what would unequivocally be a brave left-field decision, Bangalore won’t get a better player than Lomror (from the current squad) if they want to walk down this path.