IPL 6: Royal Challengers Bangalore yearning for consistency

Royal Challengers enter the 2013 Indian Premier League not as overwhelming favourites but with having one of the more balanced sides on paper. Therefore, one thing they'll look to avoid this time around would be their over reliance on overseas heavyweights like Chris Gayle, Tillakaratne Dilshan and Ab de Villiers.

What lends them balance in the outfit is some clever buys in this year's auction in frequent IPL wicket-taker RP Singh and Jaydev Unadkat, West Indian speedster Ravi Rampaul and all-rounders Christopher Barnwell and Daniel Christian.

Till last season, the 2011 finalists depicted sameness to their batting attack with 'Get Gayle, get Bangalore' phenomenon. This year they would hope the rest of the batsmen stand up to be counted and join the high scorer's list which had been dominated by their Jamaican superstar for two seasons in a row. With Dilshan, skipper Virat Kohli and De Villiers almost certain to play most games barring an injury, it presents a settled batting line up to the Royal Challengers. One must not discount India's Test run-machine Cheteshwar Pujara, of whom expectations will be high once he makes the team after missing the first four fixtures due to his finger injury.

What will give the M Chinnaswamy Stadium-based team confidence is that most of their batsmen are in good form if international or domestic matches prior to the series are taken into account. Kohli scored 284 runs in the triumphant Test series against Australia. De Villiers hammered 367 runs at an average of 91.75 against a potent Pakistan attack in the 5-match ODI series which South Africa won 3-2. Dilshan hit 248 runs including two centuries, having being dismissed just once in the 3-match drawn ODI series against Bangladesh. The right-hander also plundered 237 runs in the 2-Test series that preceded the ODIs.

Not to forget RCB's young and domestic batsmen are in solid T20 form too.

Right-handed Karnataka opener Mayank Agarwal ended as the second-highest run getter in the recently concluded Syed Mushtaq Ali national T20 competition with 307 runs in 6 games. An average of over 61 and a strike rate of 134 in the T20 series makes Agarwal a sure-shot starter in the RCB XI. Another young talent that team boasts of is India's under-19 star and Maharashtra left-hander Vijay Zol, who in all but four T20 games of his domestic career hammered 189 runs at an average of 47.25 and a strike rate of 150.  Such readings will only assure coach Ray Jennings of South Africa.

However, what may be a cause of worry for the former Proteas boss will be the bowling department, which has failed to form a core base unlike other teams like Mumbai Indians and Chennai Super Kings. With India spearhead Zaheer Khan set to return to competitive cricket after a lengthy lay off due to a calf injury, and Rampaul still striving to regain match fitness following his knee injury last year, there is still an unsettled look in the fast bowling ranks.

The spin bowling department gets a boost with latest recruit Murali Kartik, not only as a wily alternative to KP Appanna but even if they decide to replace Sri Lankan master Muttiah Muralitharan or Kiwi ace Daniel Vettori. Kartik's inclusion will allow the team to play an additional overseas player apart from Gayle, Dilshan and wicketkeeper De Villiers.

Overseas all-rounder Christian, the most expensive foreign player at the IPL 5 auction, has expressed his relief that he'll not be bowling to Chris Gayle for the next two months.  Moises Henriques, on the other hand, took to Indian conditions like fish to water by scoring fifties in his debut Test at Chennai earlier this year. Both will be vying for that one overseas players' slot in the XI.

Strengths: A powerful batting line up. Setting totals to this RCB side will be extremely difficult.

Weaknesses: An unsettled bowling line up. If Zaheer and Rampaul are unable to hit top form, the fast-bowling department looks frail with a leading medium pacer in RP Singh and support bowlers in Abhimanyu Mithun and Sreenath Aravind.

The Vijay Mallya owned team would want to erase the agony of not making it to the play offs last time around and finish in the top 3 for sure.

Royal Challengers Bangalore: HOT PLAYERS

Virat Kohli: Indian cricket's up and coming next superstar has the full backing of the Royal Challengers Bangalore's management as he sits at the helm of captaincy. The Indian advertisers' favourite now has his chance to showcase his captaincy skills, so as to make his case as a possible replacement for MS Dhoni in the future. Regarding his batting in the IPL, Kohli is not in the same league of highest run getters like Suresh Raina, Gautam Gambhir, Sachin Tendulkar or Rohit Sharma, but would like to lead by example this time around. He has a total of 1639 IPL runs in 77 games for the Royal Challengers over 5 seasons at an average of 28.75 and a strike rate of almost 120.

Zaheer Khan: The IPL may just show how much fire Zaheer Khan has it in him to make it back to the Indian side, more so for the tour of South Africa in November later this year. The left-arm seam bowler is by far India's best fast bowler and now he will have to live up to that expectation yet again. Zaheer's presence in the side as a senior pro, mentoring to the youngsters will be an asset to a side which boasts of an otherwise uninspiring fast bowling line up. Zaheer has 65 IPL wickets in 62 games with a best of 3 for 21 and an economy rate of 7.74.

Mayank Agarwal: Interestingly, this right-handed swashbuckling batsman is one of the few local players in the Royal Challengers Bangalore squad belonging to Karnataka. What he brings to the side freshness while batting in an uninhibited style. Agarwal scored 225 runs in the previous season in 16 games and provided thunderous starts together with Chris Gayle. The 22-year-old is in top form after recording 307 runs in the domestic T20 championship, ending as the second-best run getter after Delhi's Unmukt Chand (321 runs). The youngster would like to finish with truckload of runs and through his hat as a consistent limited-overs performer at the national level.

Chris Gayle: Let only the numbers too the talking for him: an average of 50 over five seasons or 43 matches. Just for the RCB, 1341 runs in two editions at an average of 64, including three hundreds and a strike rate of over 170. Gayle has been leading the run charts in both the previous two seasons. Just the sight of him walking into the middle will send shivers down the spine of most bowlers in IPL. Needless to say, he can change the game within 4-5 overs with his ability to tear apart any bowling attack. Been picked up by the RCB in 2011 after three unsuccessful seasons with the Kolkata Knight Riders, seems the best thing to have happened in the 33-year-old's T20 career.

AB de Villiers: South Africa's limited overs skipper is not just in prime form, but just days before the IPL, he carries with him lady luck too after he was married on Saturday, March 30 this year. A very dangerous batsman in the middle overs, De Villiers can change the complexion of the game by upping the tempo. Is street smart with the willow in hand as he showcases a lot of unorthodox strokes, like he did in last year, hammering 23 runs off his countryman Dale Steyn as his 17-ball 47 helped RCB to an unlikely win over Deccan Chargers. For a player who does not seem to look like a bludgeoner, he has a fancy for hitting sixes. He hammered 15 sixes to go with his 26 fours last edition, scoring 319 runs at an average of nearly 40 at an astonishing strike rate of 161. With the team loaded with big hitters at the top, De Villiers' role is to shore up the middle order at No.4 and then go for broke in the death overs.

Muttiah Muralitharan: This could be an emotional IPL for the Sri Lankan wizard. The whole fracas over Lankan players' restrictions on playing games in Chennai may just make the wily old fox deadlier than ever. Muralitharan, a Lankan Tamil whose wife is from Chennai, still has it in him to trouble top class batsmen and limit their scoring. Is IPL economy of less than 6.5 per over in 55 matches, including 57 wickets still features in top-5 strike rates in the tournament's history. He is expected to play a senior role and will be the preferred overseas spinner when a choice between him and former skipper Daniel Vettori is made.

Full Squad:

Virat Kohli (captain), Cheteshwar Pujara, Mayank Agarwal, Saurabh Tiwary, Sunny Sohal, Abhinav Mukund, Chris Gayle, Karun Nair, Vijay Zol, Andrew McDonald, Daniel Vettori, Tillakaratne Dilshan, Moises Henriques, Daniel Christian, Christopher Barnwell, Arun Karthik (wkt), AB de Villiers (wkt), Sheldon Jackson (wkt), Harshal Patel, KP Appanna, Vinay Kumar, Syed Mohammed, P Parameswaran, Abhimanyu Mithun, Zaheer Khan, Sreenath Aravind, Sandeep Warrier, Jaydev Unadkat, Pankaj Singh, RP Singh, Murali Karthik, Ravi Rampaul.