IPL 2020 | Batting and bowling at death major concerns for RCB, feels Aakash Chopra

After coming agonizingly close to finally lifting the IPL title in 2016, Royal Challengers Bangalore’s trajectory, much to everyone’s utter horror, has gone in a solitary direction: downward. After finishing 8th, subsequently, in IPL 2017, the Virat Kohli-led side failed to make the play-offs in 2018 before once again finishing bottom in 2019. Thus after having hit rock bottom, all eyes were on the franchise ahead of the auction for IPL 2020, and the club responded by making a few shrewd purchases, not least the one of Aussie skipper Aaron Finch.

But despite the squad for the forthcoming season looking relatively balanced on paper, renowned commentator Aakash Chopra has his own reservations about it. According to Chopra, death batting is one of the two glaring weaknesses in RCB’s squad and that, he feels, is a result of the franchise messing up the mega auction.

“There are some glaring weaknesses in the RCB squad. It is true that when you have not done well in the first big auction, you are always left behind. Because even if you try to pick players in mini auctions or trading windows, you have gaping holes and you don’t get the right players to fill them,” Chopra said in a video uploaded on his YouTube channel, reported Hindustan Times.

“One of their problems has been their death over batting. If AB de Villiers and Virat Kohli play till the end it is fine, but if not then who? It can be a matter of concern although it is better than earlier because they have Moeen Ali, Shivam Dube, Washington Sundar and Chris Morris.”

Chopra opined that Kohli should rely on Moeen, who last season struck his 220 runs at a rate of 165.41, and the trio of Dube, Sundar and Morris to get the side quick runs towards the end.

“Dube and Sundar have played quite a bit for India and have scored runs and done their job, they are far more experienced. They should play Moeen Ali down the order and with the new acquisition Chris Morris, the four of them together can do the job even though they may not be the best in the world,” said the 42-year-old.

The second glaring weakness, according to the former opener, is RCB’s death bowling. RCB splashed a total of 16.5 crore on the quartet of Morris, Steyn, Richardson and Udana specifically to solve their concerns at the death but despite snapping up all those players and despite boasting of the Indian trio of Umesh, Siraj and Saini, Chopra feels that Kohli’s side doesn’t have a ‘gun death bowler’.

“The second problem is the death over bowling. Chris Morris is not a gun death bowler, even if you play Dale Steyn, he is also not a gun death bowler. Then who is the gun death bowler - Navdeep Saini, Umesh Yadav, Mohammed Siraj - they do not inspire the confidence that you would perhaps want.”