In the eve of first match of IPL 14, teams will be busy working on the perfectly balanced side for the tournament opener. Royal Challengers Bangalore will take on Mumbai Indians in Chennai and choosing well-balance playing XI to win the match is very important. The team management must have having thoughts over the perfect partner for Virat Kohli at the opening slot.
Opening Options For RCB
Among a few interesting buys, Royal Challengers Bangalore went on to bid for Mohammed Azharuddin and Finn Allen. As Virat Kohli already mentioned about opening this season for Royal Challengers Bangalore, these two batsmen will have a competition to partner the captain at the top.
Kerala batsman, Mohammed Azharuddeen is a promising Indian player and a regular skipper for Kerala in the longer formats. Azharuddeen showed his class in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy and also scored a fantastic 137 off 54 balls against Mumbai. He is not experienced by he can allow the side to make place for another foreigner. Also, AB de Villiers can be rested from keeping continuously at a stretch for 20 overs.
Finn Allen from New Zealand made his international debut against Bangladesh in the recently concluded T20I series. He failed to impress anyone on debut and got a golden duck, he showed his true ability in the 3rd T20I, scoring 71 runs off just 29 balls. Allen too can don the big gloves occasionally as well. However, adding Finn in combination means dropping an overseas player. As IPL teams can have a maximum of four foreigners in their Playing XI, RCB will have to smart while choosing their players.
Likely XI for RCB in First IPL Match, 2021
Mhd Azharudeen / Finn Allen, Virat Kohli (c), Rajat Patidar, AB de Villiers, Glenn Maxwell, Dan Christian, Washington Sundar, Kylie Jamieson, Mohammed Siraj, Yuzvendra Chahal, Navdeep Saini
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