GameDay Squad IND Fantasy Cricket Squad Preview: The Royal Challengers Bangalore! Get the inside scoop on the Royal Challengers Bangalore Cricket Squad for the upcoming GameDay Squad competition with an in-depth analysis and preview. Find out who to watch out for!
The Royal Challengers Bangalore had to win their last group match in 2023 against the Gujarat Titans to qualify for the finals but they lost and finished a very respectable 6th. The Royal Challengers have made some great signings to add to their already strong squad and they have the talent to be a contender this season.
Squad (Averages and position rank for IPL 2023 included)
Faf du Plessis – Batsman (AVG 63, Rank 2nd)
Virat Kohli – Batsman (AVG 60, Rank 4th)
Rajat Patidar – Batsman (AVG N/A, Rank N/A)
Glenn Maxwell – All-rounder (AVG 43, Rank 10th)
Cameron Green – All-rounder (AVG 49, Rank 5th)
Reece Topley – Bowler (AVG 27, Rank 45th)
Mohammed Siraj – Bowler (AVG 40, Rank 12th)
Himanshu Sharma – Bowler (AVG 4, Rank 81st)
Mahipal Lomror – All-rounder (AVG 11, Rank 42nd)
Manoj Bhandage – All-rounder (AVG N/A, Rank N/A)
Vijaykumar Vyshak – Bowler (AVG 33, Rank 30th)
Saurav Chauhan – Batsman (AVG N/A, Rank N/A)
Lockie Ferguson – Bowler (AVG 11, Rank 77th)
Rajan Kumar – Bowler (AVG N/A, Rank N/A)
Alzarri Joseph – Bowler (AVG 31, Rank 37th)
Yash Dayal – Bowler (AVG 14, Rank 75th)
Dinesh Karthik – Wicket-Keeper (AVG 19, Rank 15th)
Karn Sharma – Bowler (AVG 34, Rank 27th)
Akash Deep – Bowler (AVG 29, Rank 43rd)
Anuj Rawat – Wicket-Keeper (AVG 18, Rank 15th)
Suyash Prabhudessai – Batsman (AVG 15, Rank 38th)
Will Jacks – All-rounder (AVG N/A, Rank N/A)
Mayank Dagar – Bowler (AVG 14, Rank 74th)
Swapnil Singh – All-rounder (AVG 2, Rank 56th)
Tom Curran – All-rounder (AVG N/A, Rank N/A)
IPL 2023 stats from RCB home matches played at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium
Seven games played; RCB won three of them
Team winning the toss won three matches
Chasing team won three matches
Average first innings score of 196 (lowest 171 / highest 226)
Batter GDS average 46 points per match
All-rounder GDS average 29 points per match
Bowler GDS average 31 points per match
Wicketkeeper GDS average 28 points per match
80 wickets taken by bowlers, 54 to seam and 26 to spin
Batters
It's all about du Plessis and Kohli for RCB. Last season, RCB scored 2393 runs off the bat and these two batsmen accounted for 1369 of them, that's 57% of the team's runs.
du Plessis averaged 52 runs, hit 8 fifties, had 2 scores of 30+ runs and lowest score of 17 runs. He averaged 63 points and ranked as one of the top three batters in a match in twelve of his fourteen matches.
Kohli averaged 45 runs, hit 2 hundreds, 6 fifties, had 1 score of 30+ runs and 3 scores of less than 10 runs. He averaged 60 points and ranked as one of the top three batters in a match in eleven of his fourteen matches.
If these players can produce the form they showed last season, they will likely become must-start options once again at the Batsman position for fantasy cricket!
Bowlers
Mohammed Siraj is the premier bowler for RCB. Last season he picked up seventeen wickets over his fourteen matches and averaged 40 points. He ranked as one of the top three bowlers in a match on seven occasions. Siraj bowled his full compliment of overs in ten matches and on the occasions he didn't, RCB were bowling second. Like many bowlers, Siraj can be inconsistent, but he offers a higher ceiling than the other bowlers at RCB and will likely be one of the first selected players in GameDay Squad whenever RCB play!
All-rounders
The hard-hitting Aussie duo of Maxwell and Green are the headline all-rounders at RCB. Both players ranked inside the top ten of the all-rounder rankings last season and they both should be there of there abouts again this season.
Maxwell enters his 13th season in the IPL, and he is the sort of player that can take the game away from the opposition in a blink of an eye. Last season he was rather handy with the bat and scored 400 runs at an average of 33. He did take a step back in the bowling department and only bowled 10 overs across the fourteen matches that he played. Maxwell ranked as one of the top three all-rounders in a match on nine occasions.
Green played his first season of the IPL in 2023 and he didn't disappoint. Last season he was at the Mumbai Indians, and he ranked as one of the top four all-rounders in all the sixteen matches that he played. This is very surprising as he did have six scores of less than 10 runs. He bowled two or more overs in thirteen of his matches and in my opinion, he is a fantasy cheat code. It's yet to be determined how he will be used at the RCB, and I'll be surprised if he doesn't have a very similar role to what he did at the Mumbai Indians.
If these players can produce the form they showed last season, they will likely become must-start options once again at the All-rounder position for fantasy cricket!
Wicket Keeper
Dinesh Karthik is the number one wicket keeper at RCB but there will likely be better starting options from the opposition team in most matches. This has nothing to do with the talent of Karthik, it's because he's likely to only bat as high six or seven in the RCB batting order. Last season, he spent time at the crease in every match but had limited opportunities to shine with the bat. Across his thirteen matches he averaged 10 runs and ranked as the top wicket keeper in a match on three occasions.
Predicted Starting XI
1. Virat Kohli
2. Faf du Plessis
3. Rajat Patidar
4. Glenn Maxwell
5. Cameron Green
6. Mahipal Lomror
7. Dinesh Karthik
8. Karn Sharma
9. Alzarri Joseph
10. Mohammed Siraj
11. Vijaykumar Vyshak
Impact Player: Yash Dayal