Bowling has been traditionally Royal Challengers Bangalore’s achilles heel in the Indian Premier League.

The Bangalore-based outfit had always boasted of absolutely world-class batsmen in their world. For the last seven seasons, they have had the services of players like Chris Gayle, AB de Villiers and Virat Kohli.

However, they never managed to perform as per expectations, and one of the reasons behind it is poor bowling.

On most of the occasions, the bowlers let the team down. And as a result, the Royal Challengers are yet to win the title. Not surprisingly, the franchise went after some quality bowlers in this year’s auction.

And it is safe to say they have managed to bolster their weak department.

It is not a popular opinion, but skipper Virat Kohli also thinks on the same line. The three-time runners-up bought Chris Woakes, Umesh Yadav, Washington Sundar, Moeen Ali and others to add teeth to their attack. Kohli thinks the team has good balance ahead of the new season.

“It’s the start of a lot of things. A lot of things have changed from the past… specially with the way our team looks this year. I think it’s very balanced,” Kohli said on Saturday (April 7). “We have a lot of bowling options which we lacked in the past. It’s been a team dominated by batting and pushing us forward in the tournament, but I think this time around we can bank on both sides equally which I think is a very good place to be in.”

Kohli is hopeful that his bowlers pleasantly surprise one and all by dominating the tournament.

“You will be surprised to see our bowling dominating in this IPL. It will be a pleasant surprise for everyone to see RCB’s bowling coming along nicely this season, and not just relying on batting,” Kohli said.

The Royal Challengers will open their account against Kolkata Knight Riders on Sunday. They would be desperate to hit the ground running after a disastrous last season. In 2017, they ended at the bottom after winning just three games.