Manoj Bhandage IPL 2025: Royal Challengers Bengaluru’s new all-round prospect made a quiet but symbolic debut in the season opener, facing four balls and opening his IPL account with a solitary run. The left-hander from Karnataka walked in at a crunch moment, absorbed the pressure but fell while attempting his first boundary. With a strike-rate of 25 from that brief stay, the numbers hint at a work-in-progress finisher rather than a finished product. What makes the 24-year-old an intriguing pick for RCB is the untapped bowling dimension. Across 14 Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy games he clocked speeds upwards of 135 kph and returned 11 wickets, yet RCB chose to unleash him purely as a pinch-hitter first-up. Zero overs in his maiden IPL outing means the mystery remains—when the management does throw the ball to Bhandage, the franchise will hope his skiddy pace and hard-length strategy can replicate those domestic returns on the grand stage. RCB shelled out ₹20 lakh to secure the uncapped all-rounder at the 2025 auction, signalling their long-term vision of grooming Indian talent who can deliver two overs in the powerplay and swing momentum with late-overs cameos. If the coming fixtures see Bhandage promoted ahead of the death overs, expect those four balls faced in the opener to quickly balloon into boundary-laden cameos—and the zero wickets column to flip into impactful breakthroughs.

Quinton de Kock IPL career snapshot: 3309 runs, 134 sixes, 24 fifties and 2 centuries. The left-handed opener has lit up 12 IPL seasons since 2013, smashing 325 boundaries at a blazing strike rate of 134. His highest score of 140* shows the ceiling when he gets going. After stints with Sunrisers Hyderabad, Delhi Capitals, RCB and Mumbai Indians, he found rhythm at Lucknow Super Giants where he spent three productive years (2022-24). Ahead of IPL 2025, Kolkata Knight Riders secured his services, banking on his experience of 115 innings at the top. De Kock’s power game is built on clean hitting—134 sixes out of 2469 balls faced—and the ability to convert starts into match-defining knocks, evidenced by 24 half-centuries and two hundreds. His journey from a 2013 debutant with SRH to a seasoned match-winner now wearing KKR purple and gold mirrors his evolution into one of the league’s most consistent run machines.

Note: This overview is partially generated using AI and is based on statistical data. Please verify with official sources for complete accuracy.