IPL 2019: SWOT analysis of the Royal Challengers Bangalore squad

The story of Royal Challengers Bangalore has not changed much from the first season of IPL where they started as a team full of star players but, in the end, couldn't lift the IPL trophy.

The team always look strong on paper and are always one of the strong contenders to win the prestigious IPL trophy. The team had the likes of Anil Kumble, Rahul Dravid, and Jack Kallis in 2009 IPL edition, where they managed to reach the final but couldn't hold their nerves in the final as they felt short be 6 runs.

Many experts and cricket pundits are, again, rating these RCB squad as a side with decent players in both the batting and bowling departments but the big question is that whether they can win the IPL trophy or not.

So to find the answer to these question we are going to SWOT analyze the RCB squad. Without wasting more time, let's get into it.

Strengths

Ab de Villiers will be the key for RCB

As usual, the strength of the RCB team lies in their batting. Their captain Virat Kohli and vice-captain AB de Villiers will be playing in the top-order whereas Shimron Hetmyer, alongside Marcus Stoinis or Colin de Grandhomme, will take the responsibility of finishing the innings.

The depth of batting is another strength for RCB as they have all-rounders like Shivam Dubey and Washington Sundar down the order. Their batting can come in handy in tricky situations as both have the ability to play according to the situation.

The third and biggest strengths of the RCB team is the huge fan support that they get from their die-hard fans at their home ground i.e M Chinnaswamy stadium, Bangalore. Even though RCB has never lifted the IPL trophy, their fans always support them and the Kohli-led side must feel blessed to have such wonderful supporters.

Weakness

Ashish Nehra is the bowling coach of RCB.

The main weakness of RCB is there death bowling. This is not a new problem that has emerged as for the past few years, RCB is known as a side with a phenomenal batting line-up with poor death bowlers.

Last year, Mohammed Siraj did a decent job at the end of the season but he is still a work in progress. Moreover, the thing that adds to the agony is that the team has no one to support him.

Umesh Yadav cannot be considered as an option as he is far from being economical. Tim Southee or Nathan Coulter-Nile can be a good option but the problem with them is their inconsistency.

However, if Siraj, alongside Southee or Coulter-Nile, solves the death bowling woos of RCB then it would be a big relief for the red army as apart from these the Kohli-led side looks pretty much settled.

Opportunities

FINAL - ICC Under 19 World Cup

The Indian Premier League is known for providing young and talented youngsters with an opportunity to fulfil their dreams of making it to the Indian national team and for sure these trend is not going to break this season.

Talking about RCB, then they have many IPL debutants in Shivam Dubey, Devdutt Padikal, Himmat Singh, Milind Kumar, and Prayas Ray Burman and there is no doubt that their excitement level will be head-and-shoulders above the rest.

As mentioned above, IPL provides the perfect platform to make an impact and the biggest example is Mayank Markande, who was not known by many before he played the IPL for Mumbai Indians and now, in less than one year, he has already made his international debut for India.

Just like Markande, Shivam Dubey, Prayas Ray Burman and all the players mentioned above have a great opportunity and if they are able to capitalize on it then their chances for playing India will take a huge leap.

Threats

Gary Kristen

RCB will be forming a solid XI with the likes of Virat Kohli, AB de Villiers, Shimron Hetmyer and Yuzvendra Chahal in it. However, the threat to this Kohli-led side is that they don't have quality back-ups.

If an Indian all-rounder (Shivam Dubey) gets injured then the RCB don't have any reliable option and thus, in this case, they will be forced to change their tactics.

Thus RCB needs to make sure that their key players are totally fit as they lack back-ups and if they fail to do so then they might have to wait for another season to lift the IPL trophy.