Royal Challengers Bangalore Team Profile and Analysis: History, Record, Stats, Squad and Achievements

The Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) are an Indian Premier League franchise cricket team headquartered in Bengaluru, Karnataka (IPL). United Spirits launched it in 2008 and named it after the company’s liquor brand Royal Challenge.

The Royal Challengers did not win the IPL but finished second three times between 2009 and 2016. The team owns the IPL records for both the highest and lowest totals – 263/5 and 49, respectively.

Royal Challengers Bangalore Team History

Bangalore are a well-known Indian T20 League franchise that was formed in 2008 by United Spirits and called after the company’s liquor brand Royal Challenge. The team has played its home games at M. Chinnaswamy Stadium since its formation. Notably, they have never won the Indian T20 League, but have come second three times between 2009 and 2016. Their lack of success throughout the years despite the presence of several marquee players has given them the title of ‘underachievers’.

Until 2021, the side held the record for both the biggest and lowest totals in the Indian T20 League – 263/5 and 49, respectively – which speaks much about Bangalore’s volatile temperament.

Royal Challengers Bangalore Team Record

Indian Premier League

Year	League Standing	Final Standing
2008	7th out of 8	League stage
2009	3rd out of 8	Runners-up
2010	4th out of 8	Playoffs
2011	1st out of 10	Runners-up
2012	5th out of 9	League stage
2013	5th out of 9	League stage
2014	7th out of 8	League stage
2015	3rd out of 8	Playoffs
2016	2nd out of 8	Runners-up
2017	8th out of 8	League stage
2018	6th out of 8	League stage
2019	8th out of 8	League stage
2020	4th out of 8	Playoffs
2021	3rd out of 8	Playoffs
2022	3rd out of 10	Playoffs

Champions League Twenty20

Year	League Standing	Final Standing
2008	Cancelled
2009	5th out of 12	League stage
2010	4th out of 10	Semi-finalists
2011	2nd out of 13	Runners-up
2012	DNQ
2013
2014
2015	Defunct

Source: Wikipedia

Inaugural Season of RCB

Rahul Dravid, Jacques Kallis, Anil Kumble, Zaheer Khan, Mark Boucher, Dale Steyn, and Cameron White were among the RCB players. Dravid was the team’s icon as well as its captain. In the first season, the skipper led from the start, scoring 300 runs. Other major stars, meanwhile, couldn’t even come close to Dravid’s numbers. They finished seventh in their first season.

Some Achievement

Anil Kumble, another Karnataka native and Indian icon, led them to second place in the 2009 season. Kumble coached them to the Champions League Twenty20 Semi-Finals in 2010.

Daniel Vettori, New Zealand’s star spinner, captained the team for a few seasons. Since 2011, RCB has been acquiring modern-day greats of the game. They added Tillakaratne Dilshan, Chris Gayle, and AB De Villiers to their squad. They were all hard-hitting batters, and the crowd was certainly captivated by RCB’s play. They were defeated in the Final once more in 2011.

The skipper Virat

Virat Kohli has been with the RCB since 2008. Sharing a changing room with luminaries of the game early in his career aided him greatly in achieving what he has now.

In 2014, RCB named him captain of the team. In the Test series, he had previously captained Team India in the absence of MS Dhoni.

RCB spent a lot of money to get top players under Virat Kohli. Yuvraj Singh and Dinesh Karthik were both big-money acquisitions. They had Mitchell Starc from Australia. However, the staff change had not resulted in the expected outcome.

RCB finished as runners-up when Virat Kohli was having a purple patch. Virat Kohli scored just shy of 1000 runs this season. He had the fantasy IPL as a batter, but the team guy inside him would have been disappointed as the opportunity to win the crown slipped away once more.

Blessed batsmen, hopeless bowlers

RCB’s batting has always been a mystery to me. RCB had everything, including Kohli’s flicks, Gayle’s massive sixes, ABD’s fantastic strokes, jaw-dropping sprinting between the wickets, and superb fielding, but they lacked in the bowling department.

They play half of their games in the batsman-friendly Chinnaswamy Stadium, which helps their batting but gives their bowlers nightmares. As a result, their bowlers suffer a beating for at least seven matches, whereas the other team’s bowling faces it on no more than seven occasions.

They finished fourth in the 2020 season and also did well in the 2021 and 2022 seasons. They were in third position when the IPL was interrupted.

Whatever amount of cricket has been played during this paused season has proven good for RCB. Many analysts projected that this would be RCB’s year, but the long layoff can have strange effects.

We are hopeful that RCB will end their trophy drought this year.

Current squad

RCB have seven slots left to fill, with two of them being overseas. They have a total of ₹8.75 crore remaining in the purse.

Royal Challengers Bangalore at IPL 2023 auction:

Reece Topley – ₹ 1.9 crore

Will Jacks – ₹ 3.2 crore

Manoj Bhandage – ₹ 20 lakh

Rajan Kumar – ₹ 70 lakh

Avinash Singh – ₹ 60 lakh

Sonu Yadav – ₹ 20 lakh

Purse left: ₹ 1.75 crore

Royal Challengers Bangalore squad:

Wicketkeepers: Anuj Rawat, Dinesh Karthik.

Batters: Faf du Plessis, Finn Allen, Virat Kohli, Rajat Patidar, Suyash Prabhudessai.

All-rounders: Wanindu Hasaranga, Mahipal Lomror, Glenn Maxwell, Shahbaz Ahmed, Will Jacks, Manoj Bhandage, Sonu Yadav

Bowlers: Akash Deep, Josh Hazlewood, Siddarth Kaul, Mohammed Siraj, Harshal Patel, Karn Sharma, David Willey, Reece Topley, Rajan Kumar, Avinash Singh

Royal Challengers Bangalore released players: Jason Behrendorff, Aneeshwar Gautam, Chama Milind, Luvnith Sisodia, Sherfane Rutherford

Royal Challengers Bangalore Awards and Achievements:

• The highest runs scored in an IPL innings (263)
• Fastest century in IPL (30 balls – Chris Gayle)
• Chris Gayle won the Most Valuable Player in 2011 and Virat Kohli won it in 2016.
• Chris Gayle won orange cap in the years 2011 and 2012 and Virat Kohli in 2016.
• Highest Individual IPL score ( Chris Gayle 175 not out)
• Most runs in an IPL season (Virat Kohli  973 runs in 16 matches)
• Highest partnership in the IPL (AB de Villiers and Virat Kohli combined made 229/2)