Manish Pandey, Daryl Mitchell enter RCB for IPL 2023

RCB for IPL 2023: Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) entered the 2022 season of the Indian Premier League under the new leadership of Faf du Plessis. RCB played some exceptional cricket and looked like going all the way in the tournament. In recent development some report says that Manish Pandey, Daryl Mitchell enter RCB for IPL 2023.

However, they failed to go past Rajasthan Royals in the second qualifier and were knocked out of the competition. The Bangalore franchise had a lot of positives in their promising campaign. Thus, the think tank decided to retain the majority of its players ahead of the IPL 2023 auction and let go of only five players.

As RCB bids to clinch their maiden IPL title in the next season, they would like to fill the vacated spots with top-quality players. Let us look at the T20 stars that du Plessis & co. can target at the auction. Royal Challengers Bangalore picked Sherfane Rutherford at the 2022 mega auction.

However, he was not able to impress with his performances and could manage just 33 runs in three games at a poor strike rate of 66.00. Following his awful outings, RCB decided against retaining the 24-year-old ahead of the auction. With Rutherford released, the Bangalore franchise is likely to go fishing for a batting all-rounder at the IPL 2023 auction and they could look at Daryl Mitchell to fill the void.

Daryl Mitchell has been a proven performer in the T20 circuit and aggregated 3149 runs in 149 games at a strike rate of 132.70. On the bowling front, the 31-year-old has bagged 60 wickets in the shortest format. Mitchell offers versatility with the bat as he can slot in at both the top order and the middle order.

And given the Kiwi batter has been in pristine touch in this calendar year, having smashed 394 runs in 16 T20Is at a strike rate of 143.79, he could a valuable addition to the Bangalore franchise. Thus, RCB would look to add him to their arsenal. Manish Pandey has been among the prolific run-getters in the Indian Premier League. The 33-year-old has featured in 160 matches and amassed 3648 runs at a strike rate of 121.52.

Manish Pandey can shepherd the innings beautifully and allow stroke makers to play with freedom. Also, he can swiftly switch gears and took the attack to the opposition. Manish has also fared well for India in the shortest format and scored 709 runs in 39 T20Is at a strike rate of 126.15.

Besides his batting prowess, he is a live-wire in the field. Royal Challengers Bangalore could look to include the flamboyant batter in their squad and make a bid for him at the auction. RCB struggled to find an ideal candidate for the number five slot in the 2022 season.

They tried the likes of Suyash Prabhudessai and Mahipal Lomror for the role, but the duo was not able to perform as per expectations. The team management retained Suyash and Lomror for the 16th edition due to the glimpses of brilliance they showed.

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But still, they would like to bolster the middle-order batting further for the next season to avoid any hiccups. Therefore, they could try to sign Manish, who is highly experienced of playing in the middle order.