The New Royal Challengers Bangalore

"This time it is the new RCB you are going to see". It was a statement given by the management of the Royal Challengers Bangalore before the start of this years IPL. And now Kohli & Co. proving this statement very much right.

In the past six seasons of the IPL, the Bangalore based franchise wasn't able to win more than three matches till the halfway stage of the tournament but this time tables have turned.

What is different this time for them

AB donning the gloves

In the first two matches, RCB decided to go with their old playing strategy. They chose Aaron Finch, Ab de Villers, Dale Steyn & Joshua Philipe as their four overseas. With the latter behind the stumps.

The combination was not very much helpful because their bowling attack was still a problem. 

But after AB started to keep the wickets, it provided the team with the much-needed balance in their bowling department by playing an overseas bowler like Isuru Udana, Chris Morris. It provided the team with a much-needed balance in all departments of the game.

Sundar, the powerplay specialist

Washington Sundar, who was the fifth-best bowler during the 2017 IPL season because of his economy rate during the field restrictions. 

However, he couldn't do the same for the RCB in the past two years because he didn't get much of opportunity to bowl at the start. After all, the skipper used him in the middle.

But this year he got the new ball and the opportunity to showcase his skills with the ball. After the game against the Mumbai Indians, he has bowled 19 overs and took five wickets with an outstanding economy of 4.63. 

Work on pre-game tactics 

The game against KKR in Sharjah where the RCB management decided to add an extra bowler to get more options by dropping a batsman shows how the new management planning skills.

On a small ground having an extra bowling option was a great move against the strong batting line-up of Kolkata. 

Bold captaincy by Virat

This season Virat has been very bold in his decision making by using Yuzvendra Chahal in the powerplay, giving Shivam Dube match deciding overs, giving Navdeep Saini the responsibility of bowling the super over shows his faith in his players.