Picture Credit: IPL/BCCI
Indian Premier League is the most competitive cricket league around the globe. Players from all over the world wish to be picked up by any of the franchise. Unfortunately, this year season had to be suspended halfway due to the rising number of cases of COVID-19.
Despite having the likes of Virat Kohli, AB de Villiers, and Chris Gayle (in earlier seasons), RCB has never won an IPL trophy. Although they have played 3 finals and made it to the playoffs 6 times. Virat Kohli is quite a successful captain in world cricket. Under his leadership, India will play the WTC final in England. Still, Virat is yet to taste silverware in IPL. Although RCB was progressing well in this season's IPL, they were level on points with 2nd placed CSK with 10 points.
Also read: 5 Players Chennai Super Kings may retain ahead of IPL 2022 mega auction
Let's have a look at which 5 players RCB could retain that will help them to win their maiden IPL title:
1. Virat Kohli
Virat may not be the best captain when it comes to winning the IPL trophy but the 32-year-old is admired for his batting wherever he goes. The ultimate batsman is the leading run-scorer in IPL with 6076 runs at a strike rate of above 130. He is also the only batsman to have an average of above 50 in all three formats of international cricket. No team can overlook a player like him.
2. AB de Villiers
AB de Villiers is also recognised as Mr 360 degree batsman. He bats in 2 modes: Classical & Innovative. No player in the world can bat as effortlessly as him. If AB is on a roll, he can win matches single-handedly against the toughest of teams. In 176 IPL games, ABD has scored 5056 with an average of over 40. He may be 37-years-old, but it looks like he can play for another 10 years.
3. Yuzvendra Chahal
In the last mega auction, Chahal was retained by RCB by a Right to match card. Since 2014, he has been the go-to man for Virat. His ability to chip wickets on regular intervals makes him so special. Chahal has scalped 125 wickets in 106 matches with an impressive economy rate of 7.70. It's going to be a headache for RCB camp to ignore him.
4. Devdutt Padikkal
Looking at the future prospect, RCB might retain the young opener. This year has been very good for him. He was at second in the top run-scorer list of Vijay Hazare trophy and recently scored an unbeaten century in IPL. Due to his uncapped status, the team management will be eager to keep him.
5. Mohammed Siraj
Siraj started playing leather ball cricket only in 2015 and made his Test debut in 2020 for the national team. In just five years, he has achieved what many players fail to accomplish even after 10 years. The right-arm pacer has been in & out of the IPL team in his previous years. But this season, he cemented his place and looked in a great rhythm. In 7 games of IPL 2021, Siraj took 6 wickets with an economy rate of 7.34.
Players like Glenn Maxwell, Washington Sundar and Navdeep Saini will also be on RCB's radar and it will be interesting to see who will make it to the retention list.