Why AB should bat at No.3 ?

RCB have made remarkable start to IPL 2021 by winning back to back first 2 games.However, the debates of batting AB de villiers at 5 or higher up the order is not ending.

The obvious choice is to go with AB de Villiers at No. 3 position. The general thumb rule is to have your best batsmen facing the highest number of deliveries. A well settled de Villiers batting the death overs would be a nightmare to bowl to and the South African could go berserk without breaking into a sweat.

Daniel Vettori, former Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) captain believes AB de Villiers should be batting higher up the order for the franchise. Daniel Vettori played for RCB in 2011-2012.

"They put him down to No. 5, which is pretty low for a player of his quality. But they got the result they wanted because of his ability and his maturity to get them through. It was a wonderful innings. Apart from him and Maxwell, no one really looked fluent at all for RCB throughout the innings".Daniel Vettori quoted speaking to Cricinfo.

Yuvraj Singh, the former Indian batsman, was also surprised with AB de Villiers’ batting position in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2021 opener between Mumbai Indians (MI) and Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB).

Yuvraj took to Twitter and wrote, “Don’t understand @ABdeVilliers17 batting at no 5 !!? our best batsmen after opening have to come at no 3 or no 4 in t20 just an opinion.”

Rationale of Batting ABD at 5 explained by Kohli and experts. 

Irfan Pathan opined that Maxwell’s presence in the middle-order is ‘very crucial’ for the Kohli-led side as it forces the opposition to restructure their strategy and put their best bowlers at work.

“When a player of Maxwell's calibre bats in the middle-order, he won't take too much time. He is a busy contender and that puts the opposition under pressure to bring their main bowlers and their planning gets completely changed. So, Maxwell playing at four is very crucial.

Virat Kohli explains why AB de Villiers batted lower down the order

While Kohli explained why they batted AB at 5 after the post match presentation. “AB is probably the only player who’s so versatile and can do what he did on slow pitches today, so we have to understand. If there’s a partnership on, you might see a totally different order. But in a tricky chase, you want some options in the back end, where the opposition thinks it’s not over till he gets out,” Kohli stated.

Which position does ABD likes batting ?

Ab de villiers in past have made it public that he likes batting higher up the order in T20s.After scoring his best score for RCB, AB de Villiers told to reporters ,"he always wanted to bat in the top order, in T20 cricket", after his unbeaten 133 led Royal Challengers Bangalore to victory in Mumbai.

While his records at International level for South Africa is also way below his standards.He had scored at an average of 26 in 79 International T20s for South Africa.In few matches he batted lower down the order for South Africa and struggled, While his best performance for South Africa has also been batting at No.3 in International T20s.

The reason why RCB as a team struggled in IPL is consistency.They keep changing their strategies mid season.If things start falling apart, a panic was quite visible in management and tactics.RCB management need to be more patient and stop being overanalytical on strategies."Keep things simple" should be the motto of RCB management.