CRICSTARS THE STARS OF CRICKET

Bangalore Royal Challengers

Owner: Vijay Mallya
Official Website: http://www.royalchallengers.com/
Captain: Rahul Dravid

Coach: Venkatesh Prasad

Franchise cost: $111.6 Million

Batsmen:
Rahul Dravid
Shivnarine Chanderpaul
Wasim Jaffer
Misbah-ul-Haq
Ross Taylor
Arun Kumar
Appanna KP
Bharat Chipli

Wicket Keepers / All Rounders:
Mark Boucher
Shreevats Goswami
Devraj Patil
Jacques Kallis
Cameron White
Sunil Joshi
Akhil B.
Virat Kohli

Bowlers:
Anil Kumble
Zaheer Khan
Nathan Bracken
Dale Steyn
Praveen Kumar
Abdur Razzak
Vinay Kumar

Bangalore Royal challengers represent Garden city, Bangalore and owned by liquor baron Vijaya Mallya, needlessly to say the Bangalore team was named after UB brand Royal challenge. As said by Mallya “The platform is completely in line with the Royal Challenge profile and brand dynamics. The objective is to further strengthen the Royal Challenge consumer equity.”

South Africa’s Jacques Kallis at $900,000 became the costliest player to be selected to play for the Royal Challengers and Rahul Dravid is there icon player. It will be interesting to see how rahul adopts to T20’s. Notable misses from the team include Robin Uthappa.

The team is more suited for test mataches – Jaffer, Dravid, kumble. I thought Sunil Joshi left international cricket years back, he is a surprise entrant in the Bangalore squad

Strength – Vijay Mallya, a no nonsense sports loving guy, if he finds potential in IPL, he will pour money and can make it a winner team and brand

Weakness – Lack of T20 batsmen, inexperienced squad

Star Players – Misbah-ul-Haq. Need no introduction almost single handedly bought Pakistan to victory in t20 finals. Bracken, Kallis, Boucher may come handy. no bowling sensation Praveen Kumar will be tested

Prediction – My bet they will end up somewhere between 5-7. If at all IPL have test version Bangalore team is my favorite choice

Schedule – April 20: Mumbai v Royal Challengers at Mumbai

April 26: Royal Challengers v Jaipur at Bangalore

April 28: Royal Challengers v Chennai at Bangalore

April 30: Delhi v Royal Challengers at Delhi

May 3: Hyderabad v Royal Challengers at Hyderabad

May 5: Royal Challengers v Mohali at Bangalore

May 8: Mohali v Royal Challengers at Mohali

May 10: Jaipur v Royal Challengers at Jaipur May

12: Royal Challengers v Delhi at Delhi

May 15: Chennai v Royal Challengers at Chennai

May 12: Royal Challengers v Hyderabad at Bangalore