CLT20 : RCB Preview

AirTel CLT20 kicks off on Sep 10th in South Africa in their earlier summer and 10 teams play in the 2nd edition of the premier tournament. No England and Pakistan teams here due to clashes with the domestic season and political reasons respectively. For England's absence blame it on the lack of the FTP window for IPL and CLT20.

There are 3 teams from India, 2 each from SA and Aus, 1 each from WI, NZ and SL.

Its MI, CSK and RCB for India. Only RCB made it to the first edition in 2009 where they failed to make it to the semis.

Let me start a series of preview for the teams I know of -- 3 IPL teams.

Starting with the team I shall support : Royal Challengers Bangalore. Just bcos its led by legendary Anil Kumble.

The squad of 15 is :

Anil Kumble, Rahul Dravid, Robin Uthappa, Manish Pandey, Praveen Kumar, R Vinay Kumar, Virat Kohli, Cameron White, Ross Taylor, Dale Steyn, Jacques Kallis, Dillon du Preez, B Akhil, Abhimanyu Mithun, Nayan Doshi.

There are foreign players in Cameron White, Ross Taylor, Dale Steyn, Kallis, Preez. No Boucher. Kallis, Taylor, White were eligible for playing their home teams too, but RCB has eased out its wallet to retain this key players.

I presume CLT20 also allows IPL teams to play 4 foreign players and in that case the RCB has 5 foreign players to chose from. Not sure about du Preez who he is and what his credentials are. This could be the starting XI for RCB in their first game:

*
Kallis
*
Pandey
*
Uthappa
*
Taylor
*
Kohli
*
Dravid
*
White
*
Praveen
*
Steyn
*
Kumble
*
Vinay Kumar / Mithun

White and Kumble would be the spinners. Kallis, Steyn, Praveen and one of Vinay and Mithun would be the pacers. Having Steyn and Kallis in the team and playing in the home conditions actually helps RCB.

Prediction : I'd assume RCB would make it to the semis given the golden run they had in SA conditions in 2009 IPL.

They are in group B ranked 4th with Mumbai Indians as top rank team.

The other teams are Guyana (WI), MI (India), South Australia (Australia), Lions (SA).