Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) are one of the most followed teams in the Indian Premier League. However, they are unable to transcend their popularity into winning titles despite reaching the IPL finals thrice. RCB was bought by Vijay Mallya in 2008, chairman of United Breweries Limited, before the ownership got transferred to Diageo India in 2015.
The franchise had changed its name from Bangalore to Bengaluru before the start of the IPL 2024 season, hoping for change in their fortunes too. With the women's team winning the WPL title in the second attempt, Faf du Plessis and his men will feel some added pressure to end their title drought. They have a star-studded batting line-up with Cameron Green joining the likes of Virat Kohli, du Plessis, Glenn Maxwell and Rajat Patidar. However, they still have untested bowling with Mohammed Siraj leading the attack consisting of Reece Topley, Lockie Ferguson, Yash Dayal, Akash Deep and others. While the spin department remains an area of concern after releasing Wanindu Hasaranga.
In the inaugural season of the IPL, RCB picked players with experience but that strategy flopped as they managed to win four games in that edition. In the next three seasons, they managed to finish as runners-up two times. RCB have splurged money on big players at auctions such as Yuvraj Singh, Dinesh Karthik, Chris Morris and many more but never showed faith in the next season if they underperformed. However, it is only Virat Kohli who has been part of the RCB since 2008, and is the only player in the IPL history to remain associated with one franchise in all the seasons. Kohli led the RCB between 2013 to 2021. Faf du Plessis in 2023 after taking charge as captain led RCB to a fourth place finish in that season.
After a poor outing in the inaugural season in 2008, RCB bounced back to finish runners-up in the 2009 edition. In 2011, the big-hitting Chris Gayle single-handedly took them into the finals. Kohli, enjoying a purple patch in 2016, guided RCB to IPL finals where they lost to Sunrisers Hyderabad. In the 2008 season, RCB were dubbed as a Test side with Rahul Dravid and Wasim Jaffer opening the season.
The same season saw their CEO, Charu Sharma getting sacked midway, also the director Martin Crowe resigned. The franchise having so much popularity among their fans have been unlucky so far with the trophy cabinet bare. Like they say, all in good time, RCB's time too would come sooner than later.
Royal Challengers Bangalore full squad: Faf du Plessis (c), Glenn Maxwell, Virat Kohli, Rajat Patidar, Anuj Rawat, Dinesh Karthik, Suyash Prabhudessai, Will Jacks, Mahipal Lomror, Karn Sharma, Manoj Bhandage, Mayank Dagar, Vijaykumar Vyshak, Akash Deep, Mohammed Siraj, Reece Topley, Himanshu Sharma, Rajan Kumar, Cameron Green, Alzarri Joseph, Yash Dayal, Tom Curran, Lockie Ferguson, Swapnil Singh, Saurav Chauhan.
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