The Indian Premier League (IPL) 2023 is just a finger count away from now. The league will kick-start from 31st March and defending champions Gujarat Titans will clash off with Chennai Super Kings in the curtain raiser. Talking about Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB), the Faf du Plessis-led side will kick-start their campaign against Mumbai Indians on 2nd April at Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru.
The RCB is expected to kick start their full-squad training from 25th March. They roped in some exciting talents in the auction this year, acquiring Reece Topley, Himanshu Sharma, Michael Bracewell, Will Jacks, Manoj Bhandage, Rajan Kumar, Avinash Singh and Sonu Yadav. They qualified for the playoffs last season but were eliminated in Qualifier 2. They would be hoping to go two steps ahead of last year and clinch their maiden title.
IPL 2023: R Ashwin picks his strongest playing XI for the RCB
The time for the cricket extravaganza is here. The IPL 2023 is just a few days away from now. Many fans and pundits have started to pick their combinations for the teams and have already predicted the winners of the tournament as well. The latest to join the bandwagon is senior Indian off-spinner R Ashwin.
The Rajasthan Royals off-spinner has picked the strongest playing XI for the RCB. According to him, skipper Faf du Plessis and Virat Kohli will be the best to open the innings. The duo notably has been quite successful batting at the top of the order in the league.
Rajat Patidar will bat at No.3 in R Ashwin’s strongest playing XI for the RCB. The young batter played a staggering role for the team last year as he played sensational knocks and smashed two centuries as well. The No.4 spot in the team as per the off-spinner will be taken by Glenn Maxwell.
The duo of Shahbaz Ahmed and Dinesh Karthik, who bailed the team out of trouble many times last year, will bat at No.5 and No.6 respectively for RCB according to R Ashwin. Mahipal Lomror also makes it into the playing XI and is expected to play a crucial role with both bat and ball in the side.
R Ashwin picked Wanindu Hasranga as the frontline spinner in the side whereas he also backed Mohammed Siraj and Josh Hazlewood as pacers in the team. What caught the attention of many was he didn’t pick Harshal Patel and instead named Akash Deep in the team. Patel, notably has been the team’s best bowler since the last few seasons.
Here’s R Ashwin’s Strongest Playing 11 for Royal Challengers Bangalore for IPL 2023
Faf du Plessis (C)
Virat Kohli
Rajat Patidar
Glenn Maxwell
Shahbaz Ahmed
Dinesh Karthik (wk)
Mahipal Lomror
Wanindu Hasaranga
Mohammed Siraj
Josh Hazlewood
Akash Deep
IPL 2023: RCB ‘Unbox’ event to take place on 26th March
While Royal Challengers Bangalore will play their first game on 2nd April, the team management has decided to give their fans a fair amount of teaser of what is going to come this season. The franchise announced an event called RCB Unbox.
The event will take place on 26th March and it’ll see a variety of programmes in Hall of Fame induction, jersey reveal and other things. To the delight of the fans, the iconic trio of Virat Kohli, AB de Villiers and Chris Gayle will be present at the event.
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