Rajat patidar on the mission to end with Kohli virat, the long wait for RCB fans: how real challengers to Bengaluru can go at IPL 2025

Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) raised some eyebrows due to the names they chose first to retain and then not to close in the mega auction of the Premier League (IPL) of 2025. The most prominent of these were Glenn Maxwell and Mohammed Siraj, two central members of the side of the side and the captain Faf du plesis. The contribution of the latter as a pattern in the Kohli era after the RCB virrate and as an opening batter was immense enough to say that his departure has left a hole in the higher order.

However, RCB did a decent job when filling that hole, landing the services of Phil Salt. But it could be said that the decision that has dominated the news waves in the period prior to this IPL season was initially the possibility that Kohli was re -elected as captain. That did not happen, but in Rajat Patidar, RCB has been for a player who has been as consistent as anyone in the League in recent years and has played an integral role in some of the most memorable victories of the team in recent years. Hope, of course, would be that everything they have done would produce the first IPL title that the Massive and Leal Base of RCB has been craving, like Kohli and past legends like AB de Villiers and Chris Gayle even after they left the franchise.

Force: Big-Bate, as usual

What makes RCB one of the great paradoxes in the history of this league is that few other parts have managed to unite the type of galactic style batting alignments that they have over the years. That is still the case this season. The six of Salt were an important factor in KKR winning the title last season. Maxwell may have gone, but his teammate in Australia, Tim David, is with RCB this year, as well as the great hits Liam Livingstone, Romario Shepherd and Krunal Pandya.

And then, there are the players who are expected to do the great races in Patidar, Kohli and Devdutt Padikkal. The latter has had a great time in the 50 and first -class Cricket in recent times, but its T20 star has been filed. Kohli can be in a routine in the longest format and did not really shine in the 2024 T20 World Cup, except, of course, in the final when it mattered. But if he manages to do approximately half of what he did last year and if the rest of his great batters shoot, RCB could really be making a show this season.

Weakness: form of the attack questions of great success and rhythm in the Chinnaswamy

As stated above, the Padikkal star has not really increased in T20 in the way it was expected when it scored 473 races in its first season with RCB in the 2020 season full of Covid. Last year he had a forgettable excursion for LSG, where injuries prevented him from playing more than seven games and in them, he scored 38 shocking races.

Then comes the issue of the great foreign successes of Big Name, particularly the Salt and Livingstone of England, who looked completely at the sea on the quite forgettable tour of England by India and the subsequent trophy of champions in Pakistan earlier this year. RCB has two proven leaders in its rhythm attack in the form of Josh Hazlewood and Bhuvneshwar Kumar. Whether they can make the most of the friendly conditions with the battle at the Chinnaswamy stadium, only time will say.

Prediction

Predict what RCB will do under its own risk. They seemed destroyed and bruised exhaustively in the middle of last season, only to go to the hottest races after that and reach the playoffs. If we want to judge things on paper, RCB has a good side to reach the playoffs again.

RCB Full Squad: Virat Kohli, Rajat Patidar (C), Yash Dayal, Josh Hazlewood, Phil Salt, JITESH SHARMA, BHUVNESHWAR KUMAR, LIAM LIVINGSTONE, RASIKH DAR, KRUNAL PANDYA, SAYSH SHARMA, JACOB BETHELL, TIM DAVID, DEVDUTT Nuwewan Ngidi, Swapnil Singh, Banj Bhandage, Swastik Chikara, Abhinandan Singh, Mohit Rathee