Watson latest victim of RCB dilemma

Australian Shane Watson has gone from captain to dropped in the space of just four days as his Royal Challengers Bangalore continue to juggle their superstar overseas players.

Watson had skippered the RCB in their opening three matches of the IPL season due to the absence of regular skipper Virat Kohli with injury, while South African star AB de Villiers also missed the opening two games due to injury.

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But with only four overseas players allowed in the XI for any match, Watson was axed from the side altogether for the clash with Mumbai on Friday.

Having managed just 49 runs and one wicket in the first three matches, Watson was dropped as RCB opted for West Indian duo Chris Gayle and Samuel Badree, de Villiers and England quick Tymal Mills as their four overseas players.

And with Badree taking a staggering 4-9 from four overs, including a hat-trick, and de Villiers hammering 89no in his return from injury last Monday, Watson will seemingly need to jump ahead of one of Gayle or Mills to regain his spot in the side.

But Watson isn't the only big name at RCB to have been dropped during the tournament so far; Gayle, Twenty20's greatest-ever run-scorer, was surprisingly axed for the third game against the Kings XI Punjab before earning a recall to play Mumbai on Friday.

The return of Gayle means RCB boasted undoubtedly the best top three in the T20 game against Mumbai; Gayle opened alongside the fit-again Kohli, while de Villiers came in at first drop. The star trio are the only three players in the history of T20 cricket to have scored a century three or more times - Gayle (5) is also closing in on 10,000 career runs, while Kohli (4) and de Villiers (3) have reached three figures multiple times in 20-over cricket.

But despite their star power, RCB are languishing near the bottom of the ladder with just one win from four matches and are running out of time to find their best combination.

"We've got plenty of options in our squad and that's the best thing about the depth of our squad, even with the injuries we've had in the lead up to the tournament," Watson told IPLt20.com on Friday.

"We've still got plenty of bases covered, it's just about continuing to find the right combination and getting it to gel."

The fact that T20 stars like Watson and Gayle have both been dropped so far in the tournament is seemingly bad news for RCB's other overseas talent, including Australian duo Travis Head and Billy Stanlake.

Stanlake played the second and third matches of the tournament before being replaced by Badree against Mumbai, while Head managed 30 from 22 balls in the tournament opener being he too was left out.

South African spinner Tabraiz Shamsi and Kiwi quick Adam Milne have not been sighted in the tournament so far.

Kohli, who was superb in posting 62 from just 47 balls in his return from injury, lamented another defeat on Friday night, with Mumbai recovering from 4-8 to chase down their target of 143 with seven balls to spare.

But having reached last year's final despite a similarly slow start, Kohli is optimistic his side can respond.

"Last year I was fit and fine and ... we still had to fight back," he told IPLt20.com.

"I think we're at our best when we have to fight back against the odds and we're placed in a similar situation now and it'll take some character to bounce back."