Royal Challengers Bangalore, who became champions for the first time in the 18-year history of IPL, will now try to defend the title in the new season. Perhaps no one can understand better than this team how difficult it is to win the first title in IPL. But defending the title is even more difficult and for this the biggest challenge is to perform like last season or to be even better. For the first time, RCB will face this challenge and to deal with it, it is important to have a stable playing-11. But will the team be able to do this this time?

on 28th March Royal Challengers Bangalore Sunrisers will take the field against Hyderabad at their home ground Chinnaswamy Stadium. With this, the 19th season and campaign of RCB will begin. Captain Rajat Patidar's champion team faces the challenge of doing what only Chennai Super Kings and Mumbai Indians have been able to do before - win two consecutive titles.

Who will replace Hazlewood?

This challenge has become difficult for RCB even before the start of the season because fast bowler Josh Hazlewood, who was the star of their first title win, is not fit and will not be able to play the first 2-3 matches. This will affect RCB's playing-12 (including impact players). However, most of the players from last season will remain but the challenge is to fill Hazlewood's place.

For this the team has options like Nuwan Thushara and Jacob Duffy. New Zealand's Duffy has been seen doing well in T20 International in recent months but he has no IPL experience. Whereas Thushara does not get many opportunities in international matches, but he was successful in playing a few matches in the last season and there he contributed to the victory by bowling powerfully. In such a situation, Thushara's claim is strong.

Will RCB give a chance to Venkatesh Iyer?

One question is regarding new player Venkatesh Iyer, for whom RCB had bid up to Rs 23 crore last time but lost to KKR. This time finally the franchise bought him for Rs 7 crore. However, at first glance it seems difficult for him to make a place in the playing-11. His direct competition is with Devdutt Padikkal, who is not only a local player but also proved important in the last season and has been in excellent form in domestic cricket in the last few months. In such a situation, the possibility is that Venkatesh will get a chance only as an impact player and his chances also seem less at the moment.

RCB's probable playing-11 and impact-all

Rajat Patidar (captain), Virat Kohli, Phil Salt, Devdutt Padikkal, Tim David, Jitesh Sharma (wicketkeeper), Krunal Pandya, Romario Shepherd, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Nuwan Thushara, Rasikh Dar.

Impact Sub- Suyyash Sharma and Venkatesh Iyer