2009 Record: Runners-up 2008 Record: Seventh

Squad: Anil Kumble (captain), KP Apanna, Balachandra Akhil, Mark Boucher (wicket-keeper), Rahul Dravid, Dillon Du Preez, Sreevats Goswami, Jacques Kallis, Virat Kohli, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Praveen Kumar, Vinay Kumar, Abhimanyu Mithun, Eoin Morgan, Manish Pandey, Kevin Pietersen, Steven Smith, S Sriram, Dale Steyn, Ross Taylor, Robin Uthappa, Roelof Van Der Merwe, Cameron White.

Strengths & Weaknesses:

A major headache awaits Anil Kumble and Ray Jennings when they sit to pick their first choice eleven. It is a problem of plenty and not a bad one to have unless it affects the balance of the side, which is exactly the point here. The foreign players for this side are all match winners in their right and it will be a major riddle to select the best four out of them. Sample this list: Jacques Kallis, Ross Taylor, Roelef Van der Merwe, Mark Boucher, Dale Steyn, Dillon Du Preez, Steven Smith and Cameron White. And this list doesn’t include Kevin Pietersen, new signing Eoin Morgan and Jesse Ryder. While the first two will be away for most part due to international duties, the Kiwi is out injured.

Even so, selecting four of those remaining names means that the balance of the side will be seriously tinkered with every time they have to make a change. This will place a lot of onus on the Indian players, young and old. And unless the whole equation comes out right, they will struggle to find the right combination on the Indian pitches. Why are pitches important here? Because playing in South Africa allowed their foreign players to have a bigger say in the scheme of things than they did in the first season.

Jacques Kallis and Ross Taylor especially were changed players. Though Taylor might yet again fire in the batting friendly conditions here again in India, Kallis may struggle a bit with his bowling. The other question mark pertaining to him is whether he can regain his touch with the bat from last year when it seemed he could do no wrong as a 33-year-old T20 player.

And so the pressure to perform will be high on the likes of Robin Uthappa, Manish Pandey, Virat Kohli, Praveen Kumar, Abhimanyu Mithun, Vinay Kumar and Sreevats Goswami. A couple of these players have had a brilliant domestic season, Kohli has been making waves on the ODI scene but again the untested ones remain a problem. Rahul Dravid and Kumble were exceptional last year and so they would have to be this season as well. With their age, form and fitness again a bit of a talking point, it remains to be seen if the Bangalore Royal Challengers can go one better than last time.

Note: This is an extract from the Bangalore Royal Challengers preview first published at www.cricketworld.com. To read the full article, click here.