Can Royal Challengers Bangalore win IPL 2021? Kevin Pietersen gives his take

Former England captain Kevin Pietersen has predicted that Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) would have to wait for their maiden Indian Premier League (IPL) trophy after casting doubts over whether they possess a squad to win the coveted trophy.

RCB are one of the franchises to have never won the IPL trophy and bolstered their squad by adding the likes of Glenn Maxwell, Kyle Jamieson among a few others in a bid to break their trophy drought.

Pietersen has said he struggles to see why RCB spent heavy signing Maxwell in the auction with the likes of Virat Kohli and AB de Villiers already at their helm.

“RCB will always be a massive talking point because they have Virat Kohli and AB de Villiers but have never won the IPL,” Pietersen told Betway.4

“Unfortunately, I don’t see why things will be any different for them this year. ‘They’ve got a fantastic batting line-up, we know that. Kohli is obviously world-class, Devdutt Padikkal is a very exciting opening batsman, and AB de Villiers – though he hasn’t played any cricket since the last competition – is such a class player.

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“So I’m struggling to understand why they have made spent so much money on Glenn Maxwell, who is yet another middle-order batsman.

“When you’ve got those players already, do you need another guy? You’ve only got 20 overs to bat. That is a decision that Mike Hesson and RCB will have to front up over if things don’t go to plan.

“It feels like they are too top-heavy and should have focused their recruitment more on supplementing the Kyle Jamieson signing.”

Meanwhile, Bangalore started their IPL 2021 campaign with a two-wicket win over defending champions Mumbai Indians in Chennai on Friday.

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New signings Jamieson and Maxwell were impressive on the matchday and RCB would be looking for more such performance from the duo during the IPL 2021 season. RCB next face Sunrisers Hyderabad on Wednesday.