Royal Challengers Bangalore will be hoping to build on their success of last season in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2022 campaign as they reached the playoffs but were eliminated by Rajasthan Royals in the Eliminator. Under Faf du Plessis’ captaincy, the franchise finished fourth in the league standings and they will be looking to better their third-place finish to clinch the elusive IPL trophy.
RCB have twice finished runners-up, losing both the IPL finals they have played in 2009 and most recently in 2016. In order to improve their chances of winning the IPL 2023 campaign, the Bengaluru-based franchise splashed ₹3.2 crores to rake in ₹3.2 crores although the Englishman was ruled out due to injury and Michael Bracewell has been lined up as his replacement.
Apart from Jacks, RCB also signed England’s tear-away pacer Reece Topley for ₹1.9 crores, alongside Rajan Kumar, Avinash Singh, Sonu Yadav, Himanshu Sharma and Manoj Bhandage.
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Topley joins a star-studded bowling lineup featuring the likes of Mohammed Siraj, Wanindu Hasaranga, Josh Hazlewood, and Harshal Patel among others.
Former Indian cricketer turned commentator Sanjay Manjrekar feels that RCB have the best bowling lineup in IPL 2023.
Speaking on Star Sports, Manjrekar said, “Their pace bowling has depth. Even if Hazlewood is not fit, then they have Topley. In spin, they have Wanindu Hasaranga. They have Mohammed Siraj and Harshal Patel. Their bowling is perfect and even Maxwell can bowl. In this IPL, according to me, the best bowling attack belongs to RCB and that is their combined x-factor.”
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Hazlewood didn’t play in the recently concluded ODI series between India and Australia and he could miss a few IPL games but Topley is a quality addition to add to Siraj and Harshal’s pace.
There was a time when RCB featured renowned batters such as Chris Gayle and AB de Villiers among others, but their bowling unit let them down, however, the franchise seems to have listened to their fans and have added considerable firepower to their pace battery.
RCB are all set to kick off their IPL 2023 campaign against Mumbai Indians at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru on April 2.
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