Batting depth will be crucial: Kohli

Virat Kohli believes he has the right team to turn things around for Royal Challengers Bangalore after several disappointing Indian Premier League seasons.

Runner-up in the 2011 edition of the IPL, Bangalore has not reached the play-offs since, finishing fifth in 2012 and 2013 before winning just five matches in the 2014 edition, leaving them one spot above last.

The results were surprising given Bangalore have possessed three of the world's best limited-overs batsmen in Kohli, Chris Gayle and AB de Villiers in their line-up since 2011.

But Bangalore skipper Kohli said the team's pre-season auction would pave the way for an improved 2015.

Season preview: Royal Challengers Bangalore 

Kohli said while the franchise's poor showings were a manifestation of a lack of depth, this year's squad would have enough batting back-up to allow the prized trio to play freely.

"This season is pretty different for us because for the last three or maybe four years myself, Chris [Gayle] and AB [de Villiers] have played under a lot of pressure because the batting revolved around the three of us," Kohli said at the team's jersey launch.

"If you look at the few other teams, they have a lot of depth in their batting which meant the guys could go and express themselves and play freely that worked for them.

"We had to be cautious and at the same time look to score runs which put us under pressure at times."

Kohli said the additions of Dinesh Karthik, Darren Sammy, Subramaniam Badrinath and young players including Mandeep Singh would bolster the batting line-up.

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Darren Sammy will add some much-needed firepower to the Royal Challengers Bangalore line-up this season // Getty Images 

"It is a very strong batting unit this time and we have got really good depth with great mixture of Indian youngsters and great bowlers from around the world and some good power-hitters."

Last season, Kohli had Yuvraj Singh for company in the middle order and while Singh scored 376 runs at 34.18, more was expected from him.

Bangalore also struggled to find consistent runs from its middle and lower-order batsmen. Wicketkeeper-batsman Parthiv Patel played 12 matches and averaged 20.50 with a strike-rate of 110.81, while allrounder Albie Morkel scored 45 runs from seven games and Rilee Rossouw scored 39 from three.

Now, Bangalore are pinning their hopes on wicketkeeper-batsman Karthik, purchased for A$2.1 million during the auction, West Indian hard-hitting all-rounder Sammy who has a strike-rate of 152 in T20 internationals, and Badrinath, one of the more technically correct batsmen in Twenty20 cricket.