Apart from Virat Kohli and AB de Villiers’ explosive batting Royal Challengers is mostly known for being at the bottom of the table. The team has never won any IPL tournaments so far. But finished runners-up on three occasions between 2009 and 2016. Despite having the best of players like Chris Gayle and many others over the years, the team has never won a title. RCB has bagged the nickname as 'underachievers'. The team holds the records of both the highest and the lowest totals in the IPL – 263/5 and 49 respectively. In this article, we shall bring to you the SWOT of Royal Challengers Bangalore. Ahead of IPL 2020, RCB Excited to See Virat Kohli and AB de Villiers Bat Together (View Instagram Post).

Strengths: 

The best part about the RCB is their stellar batting lineup which has names like Virat Kohli, AB de Villiers. The team also has Aaron Finch who can play at the top order as well as the middle order. 19-year-old Devdutt Padikkal who plays for Karnataka is yet another trump card the team has. Devdutt has a strike rate of 175.5 with the highest score of 122 unbeaten in the domestic T20 season. Australia's Josh Philippe who plays for Sydney Sixers in the Big Bash League also is promising. The addition of Chris Morris gives an additional advantage to the team.

Weakness: 

The team lacks quality Indian middle-order batsmen. The team has names like Gurkeerat Singh Mann and Parthiv Patel. But Gurkeerat Singh Mann still lacks experience and Parthiv Patel has shown more efficiency in the top order. Plus with the names like Finch, de Villiers, Morris and Steyn the team can only play four foreign players. Mohammad Siraj and Umesh Yadav have been quite expensive in the past especially in the death bowling which has hurt them quite a lot of times. Also, there is no good backup for the spinners is Washington Sundar or Yuzvendra Chahal gets injured.

Opportunities:

Devdutt Padikkal is surely one man to watch out for owing to his form as mentioned previously. Also if the top order fires, it would only release the pressure from the middle order. Chris Morris' power-hitting could be the trump card for the team. With the likes of  Morris, Navdeep Saini, Dale Steyn and Umesh Yadav early wickets from these bowlers would help them use the new ball effectively.

Threats: 

The team's over-reliance on Virat Kohli and AB de Villiers has been fatal for them. For the last two years, Dale Steyn has been facing injury issues and thus has been in and out of the squad.

The IPL 2020 will begin on September 19, 2020, and the finals of the tournament will be held on November 10, 2020. The BCCI is still working on the schedule of the tournament which is yet to be announced.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Aug 26, 2020 05:00 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).