According to little master Sunil Gavaskar, the Virat Kohli-led Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) have the ability to chase any target with the batting line-up they have. However, he opined that their bowling is weak and cannot defend a 200+ target!
With IPL 2020 kickstarting from September 19, many of the former players and commentators are shelling out their opinions and predictions about the teams in the upcoming thirteenth edition of IPL. In an interview recently given to Sports Talk, Sunil Gavaskar rolled out his opinion on the Royal Challengers Bangalore team!
About RCB’s line-up:
"The weakness of RCB is their bowling. They have batsmen with such big names in their squad that they must score at least 200 in every game. The kind of batting line-up that they have, they must score a minimum of 180 in each game. If they do that, they can win more matches. RCB can chase 200 runs, but can they defend 200 runs? That is a big question! If their batting clicks, they will score many runs," commented Gavaskar on RCB.
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As many as on 15 occasions, teams have posted 200+ totals against RCB. And on many other occasions, Royal Challengers barely managed to defend targets greater than 180!
The role of Shivam Dube:
No doubt Shivam Dube proved to be a good all-rounder having made his international debut for recent past. But Gavaskar believes that Dube’s role in the middle order is going to be crucial for RCB to click as a batting unit! With Kohli and AB de Villers coming in at no. 3 and no. 4, Gavaskar feels Dube should come out to bat at No. 5.
"I will send Shivam Dube to bat at No.5. How RCB utilize Shivam Dube will be very crucial for them. Because he is such a player that if you show confidence in him, and tell him that 'You can finish at No.6 and we will give you minimum 10 matches', then the nervousness goes away and Shivam Dube will not only prove to be a crucial player for RCB but also for India."
Dube has so far featured in an ODI and 13 T20Is for India at the International level. In those T20Is, the all-rounder has already scored a half-century and has picked up 5 wickets. At the IPL level, Dube has played only 4 games thus far in which he scored 40 runs and picked up 8 wickets.
The IPL 2020 season kick starts with the tournament opener between defending champions Mumbai Indians and Chennai Super Kings on Sep 19 in Dubai. RCB are scheduled to play their first game of the tournament against Sun Risers Hyderabad on Monday (Sep 21) in Dubai.
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