The IPL team Royal Challengers Bangalore is certainly one of the strongest teams of the IPL 2023 but Faf du Plessis led squad lost couple of close matches which they should have won and a big role in these defeats has been played by the weak middle order of RCB.
RCB may have won the match against Rajasthan Royals which was played yesterday at M. Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bengaluru but once again, their middle-order was exposed as they lost four batters in just 30 runs.
Recently during an interaction, the former English cricketer Michael Vaughan criticized RCB and said that their weak middle-order line-up is the result of poor auction strategy. Vaughan stated that their auction planning was not right as Yuzvendra Chahal went to Rajasthan. He said that they have got three outstanding players (Virat Kohli, Faf du Plessis and Glenn Maxwell) on the top and then they have Dinesh Karthik who has a contract with them of playing 8 balls.
Michael Vaughan is of the opinion that RCB should have kept Yuzi, they should have saved money by not going for Hasaranga and they should have used that money for buying a striker at number 5 or 6. Vaughan further says that there are many batters in the cricket world who can bat well at the top three spots (1, 2 and 3) but there are not many who are successful at 5, 6 and 7.
Michael Vaughan adds that RCB should have gone for Jitesh Sharma who has the capability to play big shots from ball one or for batters like Nicholas Pooran or Shimron Hetmyer because RCB needs a batter of that capability or style to come at number 5 or 6.
As far as the match between RCB and RR is concerned, Faf du Plessis (62 runs, 39 balls, 8 fours & 2 sixes) and Glenn Maxwell (77 runs, 44 balls, 6 fours & 4 sixes) played brilliant knocks and helped their team in putting up a total of 189/9 on the score board. However, RR fell short by 7 runs despite valiant efforts by Yashasvi Jaiswal (47 runs, 37 balls, 5 fours & 2 sixes) and Devdutt Paddikal (52 runs, 34 balls, 7 fours & 1 six).
Do you agree with Michael Vaughan? Let us know your views in this connection.