What Should be RCB’s playing XI against Mumbai Indians?

A very disappointing start of season for RCB fans as they were dismissed for another low total of 70. It was a shocker as the pitch behaved totally different from the practise session. Nobody saw it coming and thus Virat opt to play only two spinners which went against RCB.

On the other hand, Dhoni had 9 bowlers in playing XI so it didn’t matter to him how the pitch will behave. If RCB had posted a target of 130 or 120 , it would have been a tough target for CSK to chase.

Personally, I wasn’t a fan of the starting XI of RCB. It surprised me seeing Southee in the bench. In the upcoming match against Mumbai, RCB should play the following players in the lineup to have a great competition with Mumbai Indians:

1. Virat Kohli

2. Parthiv Patel

3. Shimron Hetmyer

4. Ab de Villiers

5. Shivam Dube

6. Colin De Grandhomme

7. Tim Southee

8. Umesh Yadav

9. Navdeep Saini

10. Mohammed Siraj

11. Yuzvender Chahal

Analysis

The Chinnaswammy Pitch might support the pace bowler and RCB has a solid core of pace department. Navdeep Saini was a positive for RCB from the 1st match. He clocked over 140 kmph which can go upto 145kmph in Chinnaswammy. The above playing XI have 5 proper bowlers, 2 all rounders and 4 proper batsmen. Frankly speaking, we cannot judje RCB’s batting from the 1st game but it is clear that they lacked temperament in those pressure situations and lost quick wickets.

Gameplay

Virat Kohli must anchor the innings and should play upto 13th or 14th over. Parthiv should go allout in the powerplay, Hetmyer might be the king in Chinnaswammy, the pitch that is perfect for his style of batting. Ab de villiers is a legend and he can destroy any bowers in a given day. Then, there is Colin De grandhomme and Shivam Dube to provide a solid finishing. Their batting lineup is capable of posting a target above 190 and their bowling lineup can defend that target. So they must execute their plan properly and shouldn’t panic in crunch situations.

What I noticed from Mumbai’s 1st match is that their bowling wasn’t as threatening as it used to be. Keeping Ishan Kishan and Mayank Markhande in the bench was something that I didn’t like.

If RCB won the toss and decide to chase then it will not be difficult for RCB to chase any target given by MI especially in Chinnaswammy, the home Stadium.