IPL 2025: Salt-Livingstone's Fire Power And...? - 3 Strengths Of Virat Kohli's RCB

Probuddha Bhattacharjee

Virat Kohli and Liam Livingstone [Source: @Aarushijoshii, @mufaddal_vohra/x.com]Virat Kohli and Liam Livingstone [Source: @Aarushijoshii, @mufaddal_vohra/x.com]

The Royal Challengers Bengaluru have been one of the most followed teams in the Indian Premier League over the years. The franchise has been represented by some of the biggest stars in international cricket over the years. Yet, in 17 years they have not laid their hands on the coveted trophy and are still hunting for their maiden title win.

On most occasions, RCB have faced criticism for their strategies during the auctions and it has often been said that they lose half the battle on the auction table. However, during IPL 2025 auction, RCB gave their best to assemble the best squad possible for them. In this article, we will take a look at the strengths of RCB squad for IPL 2025. 

Before delving deeper into the analysis, here is a look at the complete squad of RCB for the upcoming season - 

Batters: Virat Kohli, Swastik Chikara, Tim David, Devdutt Padikkal, Rajat Patidar, Phil Salt, Jitesh Sharma
All-rounders: Jacob Bethell, Manoj Bhandage, Liam Livingstone, Mohit Rathee, Krunal Pandya, Romario Shepherd, Abhinandan Singh
Bowlers: Josh Hazlewood, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Lungi Ngidi, Rasikh Salam, Suyash Sharma, Swapnil Singh, Nuwan Thushara, Yash Dayal

Strengths of Royal Challengers Bengaluru For IPL 2025

3. Depth And Variety Of All-rounders

In most of their previous campaigns, the Royal Challengers Bengaluru have struggled because of the lack of depth in their squad. To deal with this problem, they have gone and recruited a number of all-rounders who can serve the purpose for them with both the bat and the ball. While they have players like Liam Livingstone, Jacob Bethell, and Krunal Pandya who can add to their spin strength alongside their batting, Romario Shepherd and Manoj Bhandage can add to the pace department's strength. 

2. Power In The Batting Order

An overall look at the RCB squad for IPL 2025 gives us the idea that they have no lack of power hitter in their line-up. With players like Phil Salt and Rajat Patidar they have power hitters at the top and with names like Liam Livingstone and Romario Shepherd they have fire power in the lower oder too. Thus there is an even distribution of fire power in the battling line-up and they can back themselves to change the complexion of any game from any stage.

1. All-round Batting Line up

Over the years, RCB have mostly struggled because of an imbalanced batting line-up. They have mostly built top heavy batting line-ups and have suffered the consequences in pressure games during the tournaments. However, this year the RCB squad looks much more well rounded. It seems that they have put particular attention to recruit batters for all the stages of a T20 game.