MI VS RCB

 

Mumbai Indians are a franchise cricket team based in Mumbai, Maharashtra, that competes in the Indian Premier League and is the most successful team of the tournament with 5 titles. Founded in 2008, the team is owned by India's biggest conglomerate, Reliance Industries, through its 100% subsidiary Indiawin Sports. Since its establishment, the team has played its home matches in the 33,108-capacity Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai.

In 2017, the Mumbai Indians became the first franchise to cross the $100 million mark in brand value among the IPL franchises.^[2] The brand value of Mumbai Indians, in 2019, is estimated to be around ₹809 crore (roughly $115 million), the highest among all the IPL franchises for the fourth consecutive year.^[3]

Mumbai Indians won the 2011 Champions League Twenty20 after beating Royal Challengers Bangalore by 31 runs in the final. The team won the double by winning its first IPL title, in 2013, by defeating Chennai Super Kings by 23 runs in the final, and then defeated the Rajasthan Royals by 33 runs to win its second Champions League Twenty20 title later that year.^[4][5] They won their second IPL title on 24 May 2015 by defeating the Chennai Super Kings by 41 runs in the final and became the third team to win more than one IPL title. On 21 May 2017, they won their third IPL title by defeating the Rising Pune Supergiant by 1 run in a thrilling final, thus becoming the first team to win three IPL titles.^[6] While playing the tournament, they won their 100th T20, becoming the first team to do so. In 2019, they repeated the same feat as they won a record breaking fourth IPL title, by beating CSK by just 1 run on 12 May 2019 in the IPL Final. They became the first team to win the IPL title for the fifth time, by beating Delhi Capitals by 5 wickets on 10 November 2020 in the IPL Final.^[7]

Mumbai Indians are currently captained by Rohit Sharma. Mahela Jayawardene was appointed as head coach of Mumbai Indians before the 2017 season.^[8] Rohit Sharma is the leading run scorer of the team while Lasith Malinga is the leading wicket taker of the team.

Franchise history

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) announced in September 2007 the establishment of the Indian Premier League, a Twenty20 competition to be started in 2008.^[9] In January 2008, the BCCI unveiled the owners of eight city-based franchises. The Mumbai franchise was sold to the Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) for $111.9 million, making it the most expensive team to be sold in the league.^[10] RIL, owned by Mukesh Ambani acquired the rights to the franchise for a period of 10 years.

Team history

2008–2009: Struggle in the initial seasons

The Indian Premier League named four players as icon players for their respective city franchises which made the players unavailable to play for any team other than their city team. Sachin Tendulkar was named Mumbai's icon player. The icon player was also entitled to earn 15% more than the next-best paid player in their team. At first player auctions for the inaugural IPL season conducted in February 2008, the Mumbai franchise bought several star international cricketers such as Sanath Jayasuriya, Harbhajan Singh, Shaun Pollock, Lasith Malinga and Robin Uthappa.^[11] The franchise named Sachin Tendulkar as the captain of the team and appointed former India cricketer Lalchand Rajput as the head coach. However, Tendulkar was injured before the start of the 2008 season due to which Harbhajan Singh took over as the captain in the initial stage of the season. The team got off to a bad start in the season losing their first four games by some comprehensive margins. Their first match was a five-wicket defeat to the Royal Challengers Bangalore on 20 April 2008 at the Wankhede. Their stand-in captain, Harbhajan, was suspended from the tournament for reportedly slapping Sreesanth during Mumbai's league match against Kings XI Punjab. After Harbhajan's suspension, Shaun Pollock assumed the leadership duties until Tendulkar's return on 24 May. Under Pollock's captaincy, Mumbai won six out of their next six games which left them needing to win two more out of the remaining four matches to qualify for the semi-finals. Mumbai suffered three last-over defeats in the next three games, including two off the last ball, before winning their last league match. They finished fifth in the points table with 7 wins and 7 losses, missing out on a semi-final spot by just one point.^[12]

The 2009 season was played in South Africa as it coincided with multi-phase 2009 Indian general elections due to which the Government of India refused to commit the Indian paramilitary forces to provide security for the IPL. Before the start of the season, Mumbai Indians traded Robin Uthappa for Zaheer Khan with Royal Challengers Bangalore, and Ashish Nehra for Shikhar Dhawan with the Delhi Daredevils.^[13] Shaun Pollock retired after the first season and became the head coach of the team. Lasith Malinga, who missed the previous season due to an injury, returned to the team. At the player auction, Mumbai bought South African batsman JP Duminy to strengthen their batting department. After winning their opening match against the Chennai Super Kings, Mumbai struggled to put up consistent performances during the season. They relied heavily on Duminy and Tendulkar's batting, and Malinga's bowling along with minimal contributions from other players. With only five wins from 14 matches, Mumbai finished on seventh place in the league table.

2010–2012: Rise as a strong team

Lasith Malinga is the leading wicket-taker in IPL with 150 wickets since its inception.^[14]

At the 2010 players auction, Mumbai Indians bought Trinidadian all-rounder Kieron Pollard for $750,000 following a secret tiebreaker. After the auction, they signed up ten uncapped Indian players out of whom seven were former ICL players. Former India cricketer Robin Singh was named as the head coach of the team as Pollock took up the role of bowling coach. Mumbai had to shift their home venue to Brabourne Stadium for the season since the Wankhede was undergoing renovation to host some matches of the 2011 ICC Cricket World Cup. Mumbai won seven of their first eight games to take the top spot in the points table. Their success was mainly due to the efforts of Tendulkar, Malinga, Harbhajan, Ambati Rayudu and Saurabh Tiwary. They won three of the remaining six league games and finished with 20 points from 14 games at the top of the points table. They beat the Royal Challengers Bangalore by 35 runs in the semi-final, thanks to Pollard's all-round efforts (33* from 13 balls, and 3/17). At the final, they were defeated by the Chennai Super Kings by 22 runs. The Mumbai team management was criticised for the "strategic errors" during the final such as sending Abhishek Nayar and Harbhajan at batting positions 3 and 4 respectively while Duminy and Pollard were sent at 7 and 8. Mumbai skipper Sachin Tendulkar, who scored 618 runs at an average of 47.53 and strike rate of 132.6, won the Orange Cap for scoring most runs in the season. Mumbai qualified for the 2010 Champions League Twenty20 where they were eliminated in the group stage with two wins and two defeats in four matches.

In 2011, with the addition of two new teams to the IPL, the IPL Governing Council declared that each franchise could retain a maximum of four players of their 2010 squad, and the rest of the international players would be auctioned. Mumbai Indians retained Tendulkar, Harbhajan, Pollard and Malinga for a sum of $4.5 million. This retention left the franchise with the power of spending $4.5 million at the auction where they purchased Indian batsman Rohit Sharma for $2 million, former Australian all-rounder Andrew Symonds for $850,000, and pacer Munaf Patel for $700,000. Mumbai won eight of their first ten league games following which they suffered a loss of form that led to three consecutive defeats and a last-ball win in their last league match. They finished third on the points table with 18 points from 14 games and qualified for the Eliminator. The Eliminator was played at the Wankhede where Mumbai faced the Kolkata Knight Riders. After winning the toss and electing to bowl first, Mumbai restricted Kolkata to 147 in 20 overs and chased down the target for the loss of six wickets with four balls to spare. Munaf Patel won the Man of the Match for his bowling figures of 3/27. With this win, Mumbai qualified for the Qualifying final against Royal Challengers Bangalore, the winner of which would play the Super Kings in the final. Mumbai skipper Tendulkar won the toss once again and put their opposition into bat who set Mumbai a target of 186. Mumbai kept losing wickets at regular intervals from the start of their innings and could score only 142/8, falling short by 43 runs. The top two leading wicket-takers of the season were Mumbai Indians pacers Lasith Malinga and Munaf Patel with 28 and 22 wickets respectively.

Mumbai qualified for the 2011 Champions League Twenty20 held in India. Before the start of the tournament, six first-choice Indian players in the Mumbai squad including Tendulkar, Sharma and Patel were ruled out of the tournament due to injuries and two more Indian players were ruled out based on medical reports. This left their 14-member squad with only six Indian players, while the tournament allowed a maximum of four overseas players and minimum of seven local players in the playing eleven. An exception was made for the Mumbai Indians which permitted them to field five overseas players during the tournament. Harbhajan was named the stand-in captain in the absence of Tendulkar. Mumbai was placed in Group A alongside Chennai Super Kings, New South Wales Blues, Cape Cobras and Trinidad & Tobago. Mumbai had two wins, one defeat and one no result in the group stage which gave them second place on the group points table with five points. They qualified for the semi-final and Mumbai batsman Suryakumar Yadav returned to the squad after recovering from his injury. This led to the withdrawal of the concession given by the Champions League for the Mumbai Indians to field five overseas players. Mumbai faced Somerset County Cricket Club in the semi-final at Chennai. Batting first, Mumbai made 160/5 in 20 overs. Somerset's chase was dented by Malinga who picked four wickets for 20 (all bowled) to help Mumbai restrict Somerset to 150 and win the match by 10 runs. The final was also played in Chennai where Mumbai met Royal Challengers Bangalore. Mumbai batted first and managed only 139 in 20 overs. Bangalore started strongly in the run-chase putting 38 for the first wicket before Malinga broke the partnership. Harbhajan then picked up the key wickets of Chris Gayle and Virat Kohli triggering a batting collapse and eventually Bangalore were bowled out for 108, giving Mumbai a 31-run victory and their first-ever title. Harbhajan was named player of the match and Malinga won the man of the tournament award. Andrew Symonds retired from all forms of cricket in early 2012.

Before the start of the 2012 season, the Mumbai Indians traded Dinesh Karthik from Kings XI Punjab and Pragyan Ojha from the Deccan Chargers for undisclosed sums. At the auction, the franchise bought five players including R. P. Singh, Thisara Perera (both for $600,000) and Mitchell Johnson. Tendulkar stepped down from captaincy hours before the season's first game following which Harbhajan was appointed as the captain. In the first half of the league stage, Mumbai had four wins and four defeats, including three losses at home. Mumbai did not have a fixed opening combination, with Tendulkar missing out four matches due to an injury and other opening batsmen failing to show consistency. Johnson was ruled out of the rest of the season in late April with an injury and Dwayne Smith was named his replacement in the squad. Mumbai fared better in the second half of the league stage, winning six of their eight matches. They finished third on the points table with 20 points from 16 matches and qualified for the Eliminator against the fourth-placed Chennai Super Kings at Bangalore. Mumbai won the toss and put Chennai in to bat first. After losing two wickets inside the first two overs, Chennai managed to put up 187/5 in 20 overs mainly because of their captain MS Dhoni's unbeaten 20-ball 51. Mumbai's chase had started solidly with the score reading 47/0 in the fifth over, before they started losing wickets at regular intervals to end at 149/9 and lose the match by 38 runs. They gained direct qualification to the 2012 Champions League Twenty20 in South Africa, along with the three IPL teams that finished at the top that season. Mumbai, placed in Group B, was winless in the tournament with three defeats and one no result.

2013: The IPL and CLT20 Double

Rohit Sharma became the captain of Mumbai Indians in 2013 and has since led them to five IPL titles.

The 2013 IPL saw Anil Kumble being appointed as the chief mentor, after he quit a similar position from Royal Challengers Bangalore. With a slump in batting form of Ricky Ponting, he was eventually dropped from the playing eleven and Rohit Sharma took lead of the team. Having the experienced advice of the likes of Anil Kumble, Jonty Rhodes and Sachin Tendulkar, the team emerged victorious in IPL 2013.

In the year 2013, Mumbai Indians started off by losing against the Royal Challengers Bangalore because of the efforts of Chris Gayle and pace bowler Vinay Kumar, but they were able to make a comeback in that match because of Dinesh Karthik due to which Mumbai lost by just one run. In the second match against the Chennai Super Kings, the openers went off but because of the efforts of Dinesh Karthik and Kieron Pollard, Mumbai had put a defendable score on the board. The Mumbai Indians bowlers started off well by dismissing Murali Vijay and the match went off till the last over, with the Super Kings needing 16 off the last over with MS Dhoni on strike and Munaf Patel to bowl; Patel dismissed Dhoni on the first ball and Mumbai won the match comfortably by 9 runs. In their third match against the Delhi Daredevils, Mumbai once again lost their openers Ricky Ponting and Sachin Tendulkar and this time it was again Dinesh Karthik who brought the match in Mumbai's grasp, but this time it was not Kieron Pollard but it was Rohit Sharma with him which helped the Mumbai Indians reach the formidable score of 209/5. At one stage, it looked that David Warner would snatch the game away from Mumbai but the Mumbai Indians bowlers got rid of David Warner by dismissing him and then the Delhi Daredevils collapsed due to which Mumbai Indians won comfortably by 44 runs. In the next match against the Pune Warriors India, Mumbai got off to a flying start with a 54-run opening stand between the so-called Pon-dulkar (Ricky Ponting and Sachin Tendulkar) and then it was followed by Rohit Sharma due to which Mumbai scored 183/3 and won the match comfortably by 41 runs. In the next match against the Rajasthan Royals, Mumbai was bundled out for just 92, giving the Rajasthan Royals an 83-run victory due to which Ricky Ponting stepped down as the captain and retired from all forms of cricket. With Rohit Sharma in good batting form, he was made the captain. Under his captaincy, the Mumbai Indians improved a lot and won their first IPL title.

They continued their winning streak in the Champions League Twenty20. But in the Champions League, too, they had quite a slow start which saw them having to win their final match of the league stage against the Perth Scorchers by a margin; they did it by the combined efforts of Nathan Coulter-Nile, Dwayne Smith and skipper Rohit Sharma. In the final, Glenn Maxwell scored a quickfire 14-ball 37. Mumbai posted 202/6 and won the match comfortably by 33 runs.^[15]

2014–2018

In 2014, Mumbai Indians didn't start off well, losing 5 of their matches in the UAE leg against Kolkata Knight Riders, Royal Challengers Bangalore, Chennai Super Kings and Delhi Daredevils by big margins, but did well in their 5th match against Sunrisers Hyderabad, but consequently lost the matches against respective opponents.

In the Indian leg, they made a comeback by beating Kings XI Punjab who were at the top of the table at that time. After that, they were inconsistent with their performance. They won against Royal Challengers Bangalore but lost against Chennai Super Kings. They won against the Sunrisers Hyderabad and again lost against Kolkata Knight Riders. But after losing against the Kolkata Knight Riders, they won against Kings XI Punjab and the Delhi Daredevils respectively.

In the match against Kings XI Punjab, Lendl Simmons scored a hundred due to which they won comfortably by seven wickets.

With one game left to play, they were fifth in the table with 12 points. In the last league-stage match of the season against Rajasthan Royals who were fourth in the league table with 14 points, they needed to win by a big margin so as to leapfrog the opponent into the fourth spot and claim the play-offs spot too. Rajasthan Royals set the target of 190 runs but Mumbai Indians had to reach the target in 14.3 overs in order to improve the net run rate and claim the fourth position in the table, but they just managed a tie with the Rajasthan Royals in 14.3 overs. So, the Mumbai Indians needed a boundary off the next ball to push Rajasthan Royals below and claim that fourth spot, and Aditya Tare hit a six to a full toss bowled by James Faulkner. Due to that six, they reached the play-offs of IPL but lost against the Chennai Super Kings in the eliminator which ended their IPL 2014 campaign.

The Mumbai Indians qualified in the qualifier round of the CLT20 2014. Due to injury to their skipper Rohit Sharma, Kieron Pollard was named as their captain.

In the first match, they faced the FBT20 2014 champions Lahore Lions but they lost against them with Lahore Lions winning by 6 wickets in 18.4 overs. In the second match, they faced the Southern Express, who had a slow start and lost wickets regularly but managed to score 161/6 in 20 overs. The Mumbai Indians started off with an excellent opening partnership of 139 runs in just 14 overs but lost their first wicket on the 4th ball of the 15th over, but skipper Kieron Pollard ended things off in a blistering way, scoring 20 runs from just 7 balls. But in the last match against the Northern Knights, they just managed 132 runs which the Northern Knights won comfortably by 6 wickets with 16 balls to spare. In this way, Mumbai's CLT20 2014 campaign ended.

Mumbai Indians won their second IPL title in 2015 after they defeated Chennai Super Kings by 41 runs. They started the season with 4 IPL defeats mainly due to their bowling. They lost Aaron Finch and Corey Anderson due to injury for the rest of the season, which meant Lendl Simmons got a chance back into the team and with the help of 6 half-centuries, gave the team solid starts throughout the season. He was the top scorer for Mumbai with 540 runs and joint second (with Ajinkya Rahane) in total for the season behind David Warner. The introduction of another strike bowler Mitchell McClenaghan in the team provided good support to Lasith Malinga upfront. Mumbai went on to win 9 out of their last 10 matches to win the title, thanks to solid batting performances from Simmons, Rohit Sharma, Ambati Rayudu and Kieron Pollard and good bowling from Malinga, McClenaghan and Harbhajan Singh.

In the Vivo IPL 2016 Auction, Mumbai Indians bought Tim Southee, Nathu Singh, Jos Buttler, Jitesh Sharma, KP Kamath, Krunal Pandya and Deepak Punia. They finished the season in the fifth spot in the points table.

In IPL 2017, the Mumbai Indians finished at the top of the points table, winning 10 out of 14 matches. They went on to win the trophy after beating Rising Pune Supergiant in a nail-biting finish.^[16] This was their 3rd IPL title and with it they became the most successful team in the history of IPL.

In IPL 2018, the Mumbai Indians finished at fifth spot after winning 6 and losing 8 matches.^{[17][circular reference]}

2019–present

In 2019, Mumbai Indians and Chennai Super Kings played in the final of Vivo IPL 2019 where Mumbai defeated Chennai by 1 run to become champions for the record 4th time. The final of IPL 2019 had a thriller end which saw Chennai Super Kings needing 2 runs off the last delivery, where Mumbai Indians bowler Lasith Malinga took a wicket on the last delivery and won the match for Mumbai Indians. Mumbai Indians defeated Chennai Super Kings by 1 run to lift the IPL trophy for the record fourth time.^[18] Mumbai Indians became the only team to have four IPL trophies, and the most successful team ever.

Hardik Pandya scored 91 runs off just 34 balls against Kolkata Knight Riders and made the fastest 50 off just 17 balls in that match.

Alzarri Joseph recorded the best bowling figures – 6/12 in the IPL history in the match against Sunrisers Hyderabad which was also his IPL debut.

In IPL auction 2020, Mumbai Indians added 6 new names to their squad that are Chris Lynn (₹20 million), Nathan Coulter-Nile (₹80 million), Saurabh Tiwary (₹5 million), Mohsin Khan (₹2 million), Digvijay Deshmukh (₹2 million), and Balwant Rai Singh (₹2 million).^[19]

In 2020, the matches were played in the UAE due to the rising cases of COVID-19 in India. Though with a strong team, Mumbai Indians was underrated due to their records in the UAE and due to a superstition of winning titles in odd years. But Mumbai Indians broke all those talks, went on to be the season's most successful team and clinched their fifth title.

Before the 2021 Auction, Mumbai Indians released Mitchell McClenaghan, Sherfane Rutherford, Digvijay Deshmukh, Prince Balwant Rai Singh, James Pattinson and Nathan Coulter-Nile.

In the 2021 Auction, Mumbai Indians got back Nathan Coulter-Nile (₹50 million), Adam Milne (₹32 million), Piyush Chawla (₹24 million), Marco Jansen (₹2 million), James Neesham (₹5 million), Arjun Tendulkar (₹2 million), and Yudhvir Singh Charak (₹2 million).

In the initial matches, Mumbai Indians struggled on the slow pitch of Chennai which was one of the neutral venues for IPL 2021. They lost 3 games out of the first 5 they played. The main reason was their failure of the lower middle order. Mumbai Indians won their next 2 games and the middle order showing some improvement made crucial contributions to seal the win.^[20] They eventually ended the season at number 5 spot.

In 2022 two new teams were introduced. Ahead of 2022 IPL mega auctions the team retained 4 players who were Rohit Sharma, Jasprit Bumrah, Kieron Pollard and Surya Kumar Yadav. They left Hardik Pandya who was one of their core players for a long time. In the mega auctions they purchased back Ishan Kishan for a hefty sum of ₹15.25 which is the second highest bid for an Indian player till date.

They begun the season with a poor note of losing their first 8 matches which is the worst in the history of tournament. They ended the tournament with 4 wins out 14 matches making the 15th season as their worst by finishing at the bottom of the points table.

Home ground

Wankhede Stadium in April 2011 during the World Cup final.

The Mumbai Indians played home games at the DY Patil Stadium in Navi Mumbai for the first two IPL seasons. In the third season, in 2010, they played all seven home games at the Brabourne Stadium while the Wankhede Stadium underwent renovation to host group matches and the final of the 2011 ICC Cricket World Cup. Mumbai Indians won six out of the seven matches at the Brabourne Stadium that season.

Mumbai Indians now play their home games at Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai. The stadium is named after former BCCI President S. K. Wankhede. The stadium is owned by the Mumbai Cricket Association and has a seating capacity of 33,108.

Team identity

Team name, motto and logo design

The motto of the team is "Duniya Hila Denge Hum...", which translates to We will rock the world.^[21] The first anthem of Mumbai Indians was based on this motto, wherein the Bollywood actor Hrithik Roshan was enlisted for a promotional video campaign.^[22]

The team logo is the Sudarshan Chakra (or Razor) as initially the name of the team was supposed to be "Mumbai Razors" before Sachin Tendulkar suggested to keep it Mumbai Indians.^[23]

Jersey colours

The team's primary colour is blue with golden stripes on either sides of the jersey.^[24][25] The team colours was almost the same in 2008 and 2009, with Idea as the principal sponsor, except for the colour shade and additional sponsors. In 2010, a new kit with golden stripes was unveiled. In 2011, kit used in 2010 is being used with Hero Honda as the main sponsor. The 2011 jersey also has three gold stripes going towards the back on the side of the jersey for the new players in the team. The kit manufacturer was Adidas from the start of IPL in 2008 till 2014.^[26] In 2015, Performax, an in-house brand of Reliance Trends, replaced Adidas as the kit manufacturer.

Players

Main article: List of Mumbai Indians cricketers

During the player auction in 2008, the Mumbai Indians successfully bid for seven players, including two members of the Indian Twenty-20 World Cup winning side, Harbhajan Singh and Robin Uthappa. Sanath Jayasuriya, Lasith Malinga, Luke Ronchi, Dilhara Fernando and Shaun Pollock were other cricketers who were successfully bid for by the franchise.^[27]

Outside of the player auction, the franchise also signed up Ajinkya Rahane and Abhishek Nayar (from Mumbai), Yogesh Takawale (WK-Batsman from Maharashtra) and Pinal Shah (WK-Batsman from Baroda).^[28] Saurabh Tiwary and Manish Pandey, the members of the U-19 World Cup winning team were the random picks drafted in during the second auction. Dominic Thornely was also signed by the Mumbai Indians for a sum of $30,000. South African fast bowler André Nel was signed on in the place of Dwayne Bravo who left the tournament early.^[29]

In the 2009 player auction, the Mumbai Indians signed up South African player, JP Duminy for $950,000. He was the third most expensive pick after Kevin Pietersen and Andrew Flintoff (both signed up for $1.55 million by Royal Challengers Bangalore and Chennai Super Kings respectively). In addition, Kyle Mills and Mohammad Ashraful for $150,000 and $75,000 respectively were bought by MI management. The team also signed Graham Napier and Ryan McLaren at the pre-auction signings.

In the IPL 2010, Mumbai Indians bought West Indian all-rounder Kieron Pollard for $750,000 ($2,750,000) after a silent tie-breaker with Chennai Super Kings, Royal Challengers Bangalore and the Kolkata Knight Riders, after he impressed the teams with his performances at KFC Twenty20 Big Bash and Champions League Twenty20.

In 2011, as two new teams were added to the IPL, the IPL Governing Council declared that each franchise could retain a maximum of four players of their squad, only three of whom can be Indian players, and the rest of the international players would be put in the mega-auction. The Mumbai franchise, keen to have the same set of core players, retained captain Sachin Tendulkar, vice-captain Harbhajan Singh, all-rounder Kieron Pollard and fast bowler Lasith Malinga for a total of $4.5 million. The retention left them with the power of spending only $4.5 million at the mega-auction. At the auction, they purchased Rohit Sharma as one of the costliest players in the auction along with Munaf Patel, Andrew Symonds, Aiden Blizzard, a hard-hitting Australian batsman and James Franklin, an all-rounder from New Zealand.

At the 2012 IPL player auction, Mumbai Indians bought South Africans Richard Levi and Robin Peterson for $50,000 and $100,000 respectively, Australian fast bowler Mitchell Johnson for $300,000, Indian fast bowler R. P. Singh for $600,000 and Sri Lankan all-rounder Thisara Perera for $650,000.

After the auctions, Mumbai Indians managed to get South African explosive opener Richard Levi, who shot into limelight after hitting the fastest century in T20 international cricket and hitting a record 13 sixes, after a bidding war with Pune Warriors India. Richard Levi was brought in as a replacement for Andrew Symonds, who retired from all forms of the game citing family reasons. Sachin Tendulkar stepped down as Mumbai Indians captain ahead of the IPL 2012 season-opener against Chennai.

At the 2013 IPL player auction, former Australian captain Ricky Ponting was purchased by Mumbai Indians for $400,000 and he became the new captain for sixth edition of IPL. Also at the auction, Glenn Maxwell was purchased by Mumbai Indians. Also, Phillip Hughes, Nathan Coulter-Nile, and Jacob Oram were purchased by MI Management.

In the 2021 Auction, Mumbai Indians bought Adam Milne for ₹3.2 crore (US$400,000), Piyush Chawla for ₹2.4 crore (US$300,000), James Neesham for ₹50 lakh (US$63,000), Nathan Coulter-Nile for ₹5 crore (US$630,000) and also bought Arjun Tendulkar, Marco Jansen and Yudhvir Singh.

Seasons

Indian Premier League

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

Champions League T20

Year	League Table Standing	Final Standing
2010	7th out of 10	League Stage
2011	1st out of 13	Champions
2012	9th out of 14	League Stage
2013	1st out of 12	Champions
2014	11th out of 12	Qualifiers

Current squad

• Players with international caps are listed in bold.

No.	Name	Nationality	Birth date	Batting style	Bowling style	Year signed	Salary	Notes
Batters
8	Tim David	Australia	16 March 1996 (age 27)	Right-handed	Right-arm off break	2022	₹8.25 crore (US$1.0 million)	Overseas
13	Ramandeep Singh	India	13 April 1997 (age 26)	Right-handed	Right-arm medium	2022	₹20 lakh (US$25,000)
19	Nehal Wadhera	India	4 September 2000 (age 22)	Left-handed	Right-arm leg break	2023	₹20 lakh (US$25,000)
45	Rohit Sharma	India	30 April 1987 (age 36)	Right-handed	Right-arm off break	2011	₹16 crore (US$2.0 million)	Captain
63	Suryakumar Yadav	India	14 September 1990 (age 32)	Right-handed	Right-arm medium	2018	₹8 crore (US$1.0 million)
All Rounders
9	Tilak Varma	India	8 November 2002 (age 20)	Left-handed	Right-arm off break	2022	₹1.7 crore (US$210,000)
17	Dewald Brevis	South Africa	29 April 2003 (age 20)	Right-handed	Right-arm leg break	2022	₹3 crore (US$380,000)	Overseas
33	Piyush Chawla	India	24 December 1988 (age 34)	Left-handed	Right-arm leg break	2023	₹50 lakh (US$63,000)
42	Cameron Green	Australia	3 June 1999 (age 23)	Right-handed	Right-arm fast-medium	2023	₹17.5 crore (US$2.2 million)	Overseas
—	Shams Mulani	India	13 March 1997 (age 26)	Left-handed	Left-arm orthodox	2023	₹20 lakh (US$25,000)
Wicketkeepers
12	Tristan Stubbs	South Africa	14 August 2000 (age 22)	Right-handed	Right-arm off break	2022	₹20 lakh (US$25,000)	Overseas
23	Ishan Kishan	India	18 July 1998 (age 24)	Left-handed	-	2022	₹15.25 crore (US$1.9 million)
—	Vishnu Vinod	India	2 December 1993 (age 29)	Right-handed	-	2022	₹20 lakh (US$25,000)
Spin Bowlers
26	Kumar Kartikeya	India	26 December 1997 (age 25)	Right-handed	Left-arm spinner	2022	₹20 lakh (US$25,000)
27	Hrithik Shokeen	India	14 August 2000 (age 22)	Right-handed	Right-arm off break	2022	₹20 lakh (US$25,000)
—	Raghav Goyal	India	26 January 2001 (age 22)	Left-handed	Left-arm orthodox	2023	₹20 lakh (US$25,000)
Pace Bowlers
5	Jason Behrendorff	Australia	20 April 1990 (age 33)	Left-handed	Left-arm fast-medium	2023	₹75 lakh (US$94,000)	Overseas
14	Duan Jansen	South Africa	1 May 2000 (age 23)	Right-handed	Left-arm fast	2023	₹20 lakh (US$25,000)	Overseas
20	Arshad Khan	India	20 December 1997 (age 25)	Left-handed	Left-arm medium	2022	₹20 lakh (US$25,000)
21	Riley Meredith	Australia	21 June 1996 (age 26)	Right-handed	Right-arm fast	2022	₹50 lakh (US$63,000)	Overseas; Replacement for Jhye Richardson
22	Jofra Archer	England	1 April 1995 (age 28)	Right-handed	Right-arm fast	2022	₹8 crore (US$1.0 million)	Overseas
24	Arjun Tendulkar	India	24 September 1999 (age 23)	Left-handed	Left-arm medium-fast	2021	₹30 lakh (US$38,000)
60	Jhye Richardson	Australia	20 September 1996 (age 26)	Right-handed	Right-arm fast	2023	₹1.5 crore (US$190,000)	Overseas
93	Jasprit Bumrah	India	6 December 1993 (age 29)	Right-handed	Right-arm fast	2013	₹12 crore (US$1.5 million)
—	Akash Madhwal	India	10 May 1995 (age 27)	Right-handed	Left-arm medium-fast	2022	₹20 lakh (US$25,000)
—	Sandeep Warrier	India	4 April 1991 (age 32)	Right-handed	Right-arm medium	2023	₹20 lakh (US$25,000)	Replacement for Jasprit Bumrah
Source:MI Players

Administration and support staff

Position	Name
Team manager	Rahul Sanghvi
Global Head Of Cricket Development	Zaheer Khan
Global Head Of Performance	Mahela Jayawardene
Head coach	Mark Boucher
Batting coach	Kieron Pollard
Assistant batting coach	J. Arunkumar
Spin Bowling consultant	Brad Hogg
Bowling coach	Shane Bond
Fielding coach	James Pamment
Physiotherapist	Craig Govender
Strength and conditioning coach	Paul Chapman

Royal Challengers Bangalore (often abbreviated as RCB) are a franchise cricket team based in Bengaluru, Karnataka, that plays in the Indian Premier League (IPL). It was founded in 2008 by United Spirits and named after the company's liquor brand Royal Challenge.

The Royal Challengers have not won the IPL but finished runners-up on three occasions between 2009 and 2016. The team holds the records of both the highest and the lowest totals in the IPL – 263/5 and 49 respectively.^[2][3]

Franchise history

In September 2007, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) announced the establishment of the Indian Premier League, a Twenty20 competition to be started in 2008.^[4] The teams for the competition, representing 8 different cities of India, including Bangalore, were put up on auction in Mumbai on 20 February 2008. The Bangalore franchise was purchased by Vijay Mallya, who paid US$111.6 million for it. This was the second highest bid for a team, next only to Reliance Industries' bid of US$111.9 million for the Mumbai Indians.

The brand value of Royal Challengers Bangalore was estimated to be ₹595 crore (US$75 million) in 2019, according to a survey conducted by Duff & Phelps.^[5]

Team history

2008–2010: Initial seasons

Kohli-Amrish Reddy Batting

Main articles: Royal Challengers Bangalore in 2008, 2009, and 2010

Rahul Dravid was the team's icon player in 2008.

Ahead of the 2008 player auction, the IPL named Rahul Dravid as the icon player for the Bangalore franchise, which meant that Dravid would be paid 15% more than the highest bid player at the auction. The franchise acquired a number of Indian and international players at the auction such as Jacques Kallis, Anil Kumble, Zaheer Khan, Mark Boucher, Dale Steyn and Cameron White. They also signed up Ross Taylor, Misbah-ul-Haq and India under-19 World Cup winning captain Virat Kohli in the second round of auction. The team won only 4 of the 14 matches in the inaugural season, finishing seventh in the eight-team table. Only Dravid managed to score more than 300 runs in the tournament and they had to even bench their costliest foreign player Kallis for a few of the matches due to his poor form.^[6][7]

The string of failures midway through the season led to the sacking of the CEO Charu Sharma, who was replaced with Brijesh Patel.^[8] Team owner Vijay Mallya went on to publicly criticize Dravid and Sharma for the players selected by them at the auction and stated that his "biggest mistake was to abstain from the selection of the team."^[8] Eventually the chief cricketing officer Martin Crowe resigned.^[9]

At the 2009 player auction, the franchise signed up Kevin Pietersen for a record sum of US$1.55 million, making him the joint costliest player, along with fellow Englishman Andrew Flintoff who was signed up by the Chennai Super Kings for the same amount. They also traded Zaheer Khan for Robin Uthappa with the Mumbai Indians and also roped in local batsman Manish Pandey from them. Ahead of the tournament, which was shifted to South Africa due to the general elections, the Royal Challengers named Pietersen as the team captain for the season. Bangalore continued to struggle during the initial games of the 2009 season, winning only two of their first six games under the new captain. However, the team's fortunes improved after Pietersen left for national duty and Kumble took over the captaincy, as the team went on to win six of their remaining eight league games to finish third on the points table. The team qualified for the semifinal where they faced the Super Kings. Electing to field first, Bangalore restricted their opponents to 146 and chased down the total with 5 wickets in hand, thanks to 48 and 44 by Pandey and Dravid respectively. In the final against Deccan Chargers, the Royal Challengers bowlers, led by Kumble's 4 for 16, kept the Chargers down to 143/6. However, they struggled in the runchase, with only four batsmen reaching double figures, and lost the match by six runs in a tense finish.^{[citation needed]}

Ross Taylor was one of the top performers for RCB in 2009 and 2010.

In 2010, the Royal Challengers continued under Kumble's captaincy and finished the regular season with seven wins from 14 matches and 14 points. They were one of the four teams tied on 14 points with two semifinal spots at stake; they qualified for the semifinal as their net run rate was superior to those of the Delhi Daredevils and the Kolkata Knight Riders. In the semifinal, the Royal Challengers were defeated by the table-toppers Mumbai Indians by 35 runs. With a convincing nine-wicket win over defending champions Deccan Chargers in the third-place playoff, the Royal Challengers qualified for the 2010 Champions League Twenty20. Kumble retired at the conclusion of the Champions League, having led the team to the semifinals of both the IPL and the CLT20 that year.^{[citation needed]}

2011–2012: IPL and champions league Finals

Main articles: Royal Challengers Bangalore in 2011 and 2012

On 8 January 2011, the IPL Governing Council held the auction for the fourth season of the league. The franchises had the option of retaining a maximum of four players for a sum of US$4.5 million. However, Royal Challengers retained only one of their players, Virat Kohli, leaving the rest of the players back in the auction pool. When other IPL franchises let go the non-performers from each of their teams, RCB lost the top performers from the previous season by releasing them back to the auction pool. On Day-One of the auction, Bangalore bought Sri Lankan Tillakaratne Dilshan for $650,000, their former player and Mumbai Indians spearhead Zaheer Khan for $900,000, ace middle order batsman AB de Villiers for $1.1 million, former New Zealand skipper Daniel Vettori for $550,000, India's new sensation, who played with Mumbai Indians until last season, Saurabh Tiwary for a whopping $1.6 million, Australia's Dirk Nannes for $650,000 and India's young talent Cheteshwar Pujara for $700,000. West Indian batsman Chris Gayle was brought in as a replacement for the injured Dirk Nannes in the middle of the tournament. Vettori led the side for the fourth season of the IPL.

RCB kicked off their campaign with a comfortable six-wicket win over the newly formed team, Kochi Tuskers Kerala. But then, they suffered three big defeats at the hands of Mumbai Indians, Deccan Chargers and Chennai Super Kings. At this stage, speedster Dirk Nannes was ruled out of the tournament and the RCB team management named West Indian opener Chris Gayle as his replacement. Gayle started off the tournament with a century (102* off 55 balls) against Kolkata Knight Riders, giving the Challengers an emphatic 9-wicket win. RCB also managed to beat Delhi Daredevils and Pune Warriors in their next two matches. They went on to beat Kings XI Punjab by a big margin of 85 runs, after Gayle smashed his second century of the tournament (107 off 49 balls). They won their next two matches against Kochi and Rajasthan Royals, both comprehensively by 9 wickets. They also defeated Kolkata in a rain-affected match at Bangalore. But then, Kings XI Punjab, riding on a blistering hundred by their skipper Adam Gilchrist, ended RCB's 7-match winning streak, with a huge 111-run margin win. In their last league match, the Challengers beat the defending champions Chennai Super Kings by 8 wickets to end at the top of the points table. Chris Gayle, shining once again with the bat, scored an unbeaten 75 off 50 balls.

Royal Challengers faced Chennai Super Kings in the 1st qualifier at Mumbai. Virat Kohli scored an unbeaten 70 off just 44 balls to help RCB put up 175/4 in their 20 overs. Despite losing early wickets, Chennai went on to win the match by 6 wickets. The win took Chennai to the final and RCB faced Mumbai Indians in the 2nd qualifier in Chennai. Batting first, Royal Challengers made a massive 185/4 in 20 overs on a slow Chepauk track. Chris Gayle was the star once again for them as he scored a blistering 89 runs off 47 balls. Mumbai never looked in the hunt for a win as they collapsed to a 43-run defeat. The Royal Challengers qualified for the final with this win and went on to face Chennai at their home ground in the final. Winning the toss, Chennai elected to bat first in the final. The Super Kings posted a huge total of 205/5. The Challengers did not bat well and lost the match by 58 runs. Chris Gayle was named Man of the Tournament and Bangalore set a new IPL record for the most successive wins by winning 7 matches on the trot.

Royal Challengers Bangalore qualified for the main event of the 2011 Champions League Twenty20 as they finished runners-up in the 2011 Indian Premier League, this made the Challengers the first and only team ever to play in all the three seasons of the tournament. The Challengers, placed in Group B in the first round of the tournament, kicked off their quest for glory with a last-ball defeat to the Warriors. They suffered a big 9-wicket defeat at the hands of the IPL counterparts Kolkata Knight Riders in their second group match, leaving them with two must-win matches in order to qualify for the semi-finals. They registered their first win in the competition, in an emphatic manner, by beating Somerset by 51 runs, thanks to Chris Gayle's 46-ball 86. The win also consolidated their poor net run-rate. In their last group match, they faced the champions from Australia, the Southern Redbacks. Batting first, the Redbacks rode on a century by Daniel Harris (108* from 61 balls) to set RCB a target of 215. The Royal Challengers came out with a spirited batting performance with Tillakaratne Dilshan and Virat Kohli scoring half-centuries. However, the Redbacks hampered the run-chase by picking up wickets at regular stages towards the end of the innings. With six runs required off the last ball to win the match, RCB found an unlikely-hero in Arun Karthik, who struck Daniel Christian for a six over deep mid-wicket, to take RCB through to the semi-finals. The Challengers, despite being level on points with Kolkata Knight Riders and Warriors, qualified for the semi-finals on basis of having a better net run-rate than the two teams.

The Royal Challengers played the New South Wales Blues in the semi-finals of the tournament. Winning the toss, Daniel Vettori put the Blues in to bat and the decision seemed to backfire as the Blues amassed 203/2 in 20 overs, mainly due to the efforts of David Warner who struck an unbeaten 123 off just 68 balls. Despite losing Dilshan early in the chase, RCB got off to a rollicking start with Chris Gayle smashing 92 runs from only 41 deliveries. He was ably supported by Kohli, who struck an unbeaten 84 from 49 balls to give RCB a comfortable 6-wicket victory with 9 balls to spare. They took on an injury-hit Mumbai Indians in the final at Chennai. Mumbai winning the toss, chose to bat and put up a modest total of 139 in 20 overs. After getting off to a blistering start with the bat, the Challengers lost wickets at regular intervals before getting bundled out for 108 in 19.2 overs, falling short of the target by 31 runs. Mumbai skipper Harbhajan Singh was awarded the Man of the Match for picking 3/20 in his four overs.

In the pre-season transfer window, Royal Challengers Bangalore transferred Australian all-rounder Andrew McDonald from Delhi Daredevils. RCB paid US$100,000 as transferred fees. Royal Challengers Bangalore also retained Chris Gayle for the next two IPL seasons.

Before the 2012 auction, RCB had got Andrew McDonald transferred from Delhi Daredevils. They had also bought out the contracts of Johan Van der Wath, Jonathan Vandiar and Nuwan Pradeep. In the auction, RCB bought only Vinay Kumar for $1 million and Muttiah Muralitharan for $220,200.

Royal Challengers Bangalore began the 2012 IPL without the services of talisman Chris Gayle who had arrived in India, carrying a groin injury he had sustained in the preceding Bangladesh Premier League. Sreenath Aravind, RCB's most successful bowler in 2011 too was laid low by injury and Harshal Patel emerged as the preferred third seamer in the side ahead of Abhimanyu Mithun. AB de Villiers and Muttiah Muralitharan gave the team a winning start against Delhi but 3 consecutive losses followed. The team rallied back, Chris Gayle finding his touch to hit 5 consecutive sixes off Rahul Sharma and Saurabh Tiwary hitting a six off the last ball to win the team a tight chase against Pune. Gayle shone again at Mohali in a comprehensive win while de Villiers, Tillakaratne Dilshan and KP Appanna engineered another win in Jaipur. A washed out match at Bangalore against Chennai denied the team a chance at gaining 2 points outright, the teams sharing points 1-1 each. Two subsequent losses put RCB in competition with Rajasthan Royals, Chennai Super Kings and Kings XI Punjab for the last play-offs slot. Daniel Vettori benched himself so the team could play Muttiah Muralitharan as one of the four foreigners allowed in the playing XI, Virat Kohli taking up the captaincy duties. The team signed Prasanth Parameswaran, who played for Kochi Tuskers Kerala in the 2011 IPL, as a replacement for the injured Sreenath Aravind. A spectacular chase against Deccan Chargers at Bangalore and two routs in Mumbai and Pune put the team back on track for a place in the play-offs. RCB went down to Mumbai in a hard-fought match at Bangalore but bounced back in Delhi as Chris Gayle became the first man to hit 3 centuries in the IPL, hitting 128* at Delhi.

Other results in the tournament now placed RCB in direct competition with Chennai for the final play-offs slot. The teams were tied on points with Chennai ahead on net run-rate but RCB had a game in hand while Chennai had played out their games. A batting failure at Hyderabad in RCB's final game of the season led to the end of the team's 2012 campaign, making it the first time since 2009 that they failed to qualify for both the play-offs and the Champions League Twenty20. Chris Gayle was the highest run scorer of the tournament for the second year in a row, scoring 733 runs at 61.08 with 7 fifties, 1 hundred and a strike rate of 160.74. Vinay Kumar finished as the 5th highest wicket taker of the tournament with his 19 wickets from 17 matches.

2013-2015: Kohli captaincy and intermediate seasons

Main articles: Royal Challengers Bangalore in 2013, 2014, and 2015

Before the 2013 auction, RCB released Mohammad Kaif, Charl Langeveldt, Dirk Nannes, Luke Pomersbach and Rilee Rossouw. At the auction, RCB bought Christopher Barnwell, Daniel Christian, Moisés Henriques, Ravi Rampaul, Pankaj Singh, R. P. Singh and Jaydev Unadkat. RCB kicked off their 2013 campaign by winning their first 6 home games, starting with a 2-run win over Mumbai Indians where Chris Gayle scored 92* off 58 balls and Vinay Kumar picking up 3 wickets. But they suffered a super-over defeat to the newly formed Sunrisers Hyderabad but then they beat the same opponents convincingly by 6 wickets where Virat Kohli smashed a brilliant 93*. They also beat Kolkata Knight Riders by 8 wickets. Gayle and Kohli were in a tremendous form with the bat while Vinay Kumar was the hero with the ball. RCB suffered a shock in the next match against Chennai Super Kings where R. P. Singh conceded a no-ball on the last ball of the match which was a catch. However, the team rallied back to win their next 3 games. One of the matches against Pune Warriors India saw Chris Gayle smash 175 off just 66 balls which was the highest individual score in T20 cricket and RCB put up 263-5 which was the highest total in T20 cricket. Pune never fought back in the chase and eventually lost the match by 130 runs. People often nicknamed Bangalore as "Ban-gayle-ore". However, the team began to lose matches away from home. One of the matches against Punjab saw David Miller score 101 off just 38 balls to guide Punjab to an unlikely victory. RCB only managed to beat Pune Warriors India and Delhi Daredevils away from home. They were now in direct competition with Sunrisers Hyderabad with 16 points from 13 matches who were also with 16 points from 13 matches. A batting failure against Kolkata and a poor fielding and bowling performance against Punjab at Bangalore left RCB in a do or die situation in their last league match against Chennai Super Kings at Bangalore. Fortunately, RCB registered a stunning win in their last match which was affected by rain. Now, RCB could only qualify for the playoffs if Kolkata would beat Hyderabad. Unfortunately, Sunrisers Hyderabad won the match convincingly by 5 wickets which ended RCB's 2013 campaign. Chris Gayle was the leading run scorer for the team, scoring 708 runs and Vinay Kumar was the leading wicket taker by taking 22 wickets.

Virat Kohli was named the captain of RCB team. Before the 2014 auction, AB de Villiers, Chris Gayle and Virat Kohli were retained from the previous seasons. The players bought in the 2014 auctions were Albie Morkel, Mitchell Starc, Ravi Rampaul, Parthiv Patel, Ashok Dinda, Muttiah Muralitharan, Nic Maddinson, Harshal Patel, Varun Aaron, Vijay Zol and Yuvraj Singh who was the most expensive player fetching a massive ₹14 crore. They ended up 7th in the points table and didn't qualify for the playoffs in the 2014 IPL.

RCB retained Virat Kohli, AB de Villiers, Chris Gayle, Mitchell Starc, Ashok Dinda, Varun Aaron, Harshal Patel, Yuzvendra Chahal, Nic Maddinson, Rilee Rossouw, Abu Nechim, Yogesh Takawale, Vijay Zol and Sandeep Warrier for the 2015 Indian Premier League. They also bought Manvinder Bisla and Iqbal Abdulla from Kolkata Knight Riders and Mandeep Singh from Kings XI Punjab during the Transfer Window. They bought Darren Sammy, David Wiese, Adam Milne, Sean Abbott, Subramaniam Badrinath, Jalaj Saxena, Sarfaraz Khan and Dinesh Karthik for ₹10.5 crore (US$1.3 million) from the 2015 Player Auctions.

Royal Challengers Bangalore started their season with an unconvincing win against KKR at Kolkata, supported by a knock of 96 by Chris Gayle. But they lost their next three matches in Bangalore to SRH, MI, and CSK. Two great bowling performances ensured RCB secured dominant wins against RR and DD, winning by 9 wickets and 10 wickets respectively. Their next match against RR got washed out after a strong batting performance from RCB. They lost a close match to CSK, but recovered by crushing Kings XI Punjab by 138 runs, supported by a century by Chris Gayle, and a four-wicket haul for Sreenath Aravind and Mitchell Starc. Royal Challengers' good form continued when AB de Villiers and Virat Kohli smashed the highest T20 partnership ever (later beaten by the same pair in IPL 2016) against Mumbai Indians, to secure a good win. Later, RCB lost to Kings XI Punjab in a rain affected match, putting their playoff qualification in doubt. They faced SRH in the next match, again affected by rain. Amidst a lot of drama, and stunning performances from Virat Kohli and Gayle, RCB won an unlikely match in Hyderabad. Now, the only way they could be out of the playoffs became very unlikely, yet possible. RCB lost their chance to be placed second in the points table after rain washed out their final match against DD.

They ended the league stage at the third position, with 7 wins from 14 matches. On 20 May, they faced the Rajasthan Royals in the Eliminator and earned a spot in Qualifier 2. However, they lost to the Chennai Super Kings in the Qualifier 2, and ended the season finishing third. AB de Villiers, Virat Kohli and Chris Gayle ended by being the 4th, 5th and 6th highest run scorers of the season respectively, while Yuzvendra Chahal was RCB's highest wicket taker, being the 3rd highest in the season.

2016: Dream Season

Main article: Royal Challengers Bangalore in 2016

Virat Kohli set the record for most runs (973) in an IPL season in 2016.

In light of financial scandals involving owner/chairman Vijay Mallya, Amrit Thomas became the chairman of the Royal Challengers. RCB changed the team logo and also became the first team in IPL to adopt different jerseys for home and away matches. Virat Kohli, AB de Villiers, Chris Gayle, Mitchell Starc, David Wiese, Adam Milne, Varun Aaron, Mandeep Singh, Harshal Patel, Kedar Jadhav, Sarfaraz Khan, Sreenath Aravind, Yuzvendra Chahal, and Abu Nechim were retained by RCB for the 2016 Indian Premier League. From player auctions, they bought Shane Watson for ₹9.5 crore (US$1.2 million), Kane Richardson and Stuart Binny for ₹2 crore each, and Travis Head and Samuel Badree for ₹50 lakhs each. Other players that joined the team were Sachin Baby, Iqbal Abdulla, Praveen Dubey, Akshay Karnewar, Vikramjeet Malik and Vikas Tokas. KL Rahul and Parvez Rasool also joined RCB for the IPL 2016 edition.

Royal Challengers Bangalore started their season with a blitz from AB de Villiers and Virat Kohli against SRH at Bangalore, to comfortably win their first match. A bludgeoning century from Quinton de Kock meant RCB lost their second match of the season. Their form deteriorated in the coming matches, winning only one match of the next five. Although, Virat Kohli and AB de Villier's brilliant form, along with the emergence of KL Rahul as an important member of RCB's batting, were positive points. Royal Challengers needed to win at least 6 of their next seven matches to have a chance at qualifying for the playoffs. They won matches against KXIP and Rising Pune Supergiant, the new entrant in the tournament. But a loss against Mumbai Indians meant they needed 4 wins in 4 matches to qualify. Since then, Virat Kohli found himself in a sublime form, with captaincy and the bat. RCB most notably defeated the Gujarat Lions by 144 runs, the highest margin in the IPL history, during this 4 match winning streak. Through other match results, RCB ended at an unlikely second position at the end of the league stage. Virat Kohli dominated the run-scoring list, while Shane Watson and Yuzvendra Chahal collectively topped the wicket taking list at the end of the league stage. They faced the Gujarat Lions in the Qualifier 1 at their home ground, the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium. They won by 4 wickets to make it to their third final in nine seasons. They played the final against SRH, again in Bangalore. RCB lost a hard-fought match by 8 runs, to end as runners up in this ninth season of the IPL. This is the third instance of RCB losing the final in the IPL. Yuzvendra Chahal and Shane Watson ended second and third respectively on the list for most wickets. At the launch event of his biography, 'Driven: The Virat Kohli Story' in New Delhi, in October 2016, Kohli discussed how loyalty was important to him and that he planned to never play for another IPL team.^[10][11]

2017–2019: Bottom-table finishes

Main articles: Royal Challengers Bangalore in 2017, 2018, and 2019

Virat Kohli, AB de Villiers, Chris Gayle, Mitchell Starc, Adam Milne, Mandeep Singh, Harshal Patel, Kedar Jadhav, Sarfaraz Khan, Sreenath Aravind, Yuzvendra Chahal, Shane Watson, Stuart Binny, Travis Head, Samuel Badree, Sachin Baby, Iqbal Abdulla, Praveen Dubey and KL Rahul were retained by RCB for the 2017 Indian Premier League. From the player auctions, they bought Tymal Mills for ₹12 crore (US$1.5 million), Aniket Chaudhary for ₹2 crores, Pawan Negi for ₹1 crore and Billy Stanlake for ₹30 lakhs. Mitchell Starc dropped out of the season to prepare for the Champions Trophy which led to the management to replace him with Tymal Mills. The team was the worst hit with injuries as their captain Virat Kohli and AB de Villiers did not play for the initial matches which led to the making of Shane Watson as the interim captain. Even their star players KL Rahul and Sarfaraz Khan were ruled out of the season due to their prolonged injuries.

They lost their first match of the season as they were bundled out by 172 and lost by 35 runs to Sunrisers Hyderabad in Hyderabad. But they won their second match against Delhi Daredevils in their home ground. However, they lost the next three matches in a row against Kings XI Punjab, Mumbai Indians and Rising Pune Supergiant respectively. Though AB de Villiers made a quick fire 89 off 46 balls, RCB lost the match against Kings XI Punjab as the other players made 57 dot balls. The match against Mumbai Indians saw Virat Kohli's comeback with a quick 62 off 47 balls and Samuel Badree becoming the 14th player in the IPL history to claim a hat-trick, but they lost the match as Pollard made 70 off 47 balls to win the match for Mumbai Indians. They lost the match against Rising Pune Supergiant by a massive 27 runs. But in their next game against Gujarat Lions, they won by 20 runs and coincidentally Chris Gayle became the first player to score 10,000 runs in T20s. However, in their next game against Kolkata Knight Riders, on the day when RCB made 263/5 against Pune Warriors India in 2013 which was the highest IPL score, they were bundled out for 49 all out which is the lowest IPL score and also where no batsman could score 10 runs. They kept losing matches consecutively as they could not make high scores and their big guns – Chris Gayle, Virat Kohli and AB de Villiers failing repeatedly. The pitch in M. Chinnaswamy Stadium was changed from a usual batting to the bowling pitch which made the batsmen struggle for runs. They ended up at the bottom of the table and they changed their squad for each match which was the reason for its downfall. However, they finished their miserable season on a high note after winning against Delhi Daredevils by 10 runs in Delhi. They made low scores like 49 all out against Kolkata Knight Riders, 96/9 against Rising Pune Supergiant and 119 all out against Kings XI Punjab.

In the 2018 IPL, RCB ended up 6th in the points table and didn't qualify for the playoffs. Fans of RCB started to use ee sala cup namde (this time, cup is ours) during 2017, and it became a meme trending on social media sites since 2018 before and during subsequent IPLs.^[12][13][14]

Ahead of the 2019 IPL, Royal Challengers Bangalore spent ₹16.4 crores (US$2.4 million) to buy nine players – Shivam Dube, Shimron Hetmyer, Akshdeep Nath, Prayas Barman, Himmat Singh, Gurkeerat Singh Mann, Heinrich Klaasen, Devdutt Padikkal and Milind Kumar. In-between the tournament, one of the best fast bowlers in the game Dale Steyn joined the squad and was crucial for the team's victories. Unfortunately for RCB, he was ruled out of the tournament after playing 3 matches due to a shoulder injury. Despite their hard efforts, RCB failed yet again to deliver in the group-stages. Out of the 14 games played, they won five, lost eight and tied one. Consequently, they ended at the bottom of the points table for the second time (previously in 2017).

A lot of eyes were laid on the Captain of the team Virat Kohli because he was to lead his country in the upcoming Cricket World Cup, this put a lot of pressure on the captain. In spite of this pressure, Kohli scored a total of 464 runs which included one match winning century and two half centuries, making him the second player to reach the milestone of 5,000 runs in the IPL after Chennai Super Kings' All-rounder Suresh Raina.

Even with RCB's disappointing performance in the season, most of their matches were close encounters and their fans were thoroughly entertained. At the end of the 12th season of the IPL franchise, RCB still remains among the three original teams of the franchise (the other two include Kings XI Punjab and Delhi Capitals) which haven't won the IPL trophy yet.

2020-present: Regain In Form

Main articles: Royal Challengers Bangalore in 2020, 2021, and 2022

Before the start of 2020 IPL, RCB had released many of their players, including Akshdeep Nath, Colin de Grandhomme, Dale Steyn, Heinrich Klassen, Himmat Singh, Kulwant Khejroliya, Marcus Stoinis, Milind Kumar, Nathan Coulter-Nile, Prayas Ray Barman, Shimron Hetmyer, and Tim Southee.^[15][16][17] During the IPL auction, they added Aaron Finch (₹4.4 crore), Chris Morris (₹10 crore), Joshua Philippe ( ₹20 lakh), Kane Richardson (₹4 crore), Pavan Deshpande (₹20 lakh), Dale Steyn (₹2 crore), Shahbaz Ahamad (₹20 lakh) and Isuru Udana (₹50 lakh).^[18][19][20] RCB released a new logo and a new jersey ahead of the 2020 season.

RCB qualified for the playoffs of the 2020 IPL for the first time since 2016, but they failed to win the title after losing to Sunrisers Hyderabad in the Eliminator. Devdutt Padikkal was the team's leading run scorer with 473 runs, followed by Virat Kohli (466 runs) and AB de Villiers (454 runs). Yuzvendra Chahal was the pick of the bowlers with 21 wickets, followed by Chris Morris and Mohammad Siraj with 11 wickets each.^[21]

Before the 2021 IPL season, RCB released Chris Morris, Aaron Finch, Moeen Ali, Isuru Udana, Dale Steyn, Shivam Dube, Umesh Yadav, Pawan Negi, Gurkeerat Mann, and Parthiv Patel (retired).^[22] During the IPL Auction they added Glenn Maxwell, Mohammed Azharuddeen, Sachin Baby, Kyle Jamieson, Srikar Bharat, Rajat Patidar, Dan Christian, Suyash Prabhudessai, and Finn Allen to their squad. This was AB de Villiers's last season in the IPL, as he announced his retirement in November 2021.

RCB faced the same fate as they did in the previous season, failing to lift the trophy once again after losing to Kolkata Knight Riders in the Eliminator. This season saw the rise of Harshal Patel as the team's breakout player as he finished the season with 32 wickets, equaling the record for highest number of wickets taken in a season and winning the Purple Cap. Glenn Maxwell was the highest run scorer for the team with 513 runs (fifth highest in the season). ^[23] Virat Kohli achieved the feat of becoming the first ever batter to score 6000 runs in the IPL during the season.^[24]

The 2022 season saw some major changes in the team as before the start of the season star batter AB de Villiers announced his retirement in November 2021 and RCB announced a new captain, Faf du Plessis, after former captain Virat Kohli announced his retirement from captaincy following the second leg of 2021 IPL season.^[25] They also appointed Sanjay Bangar as the new head coach.^[26]

Ahead of the IPL Mega Auction, RCB retained Virat Kohli, Glenn Maxwell and Mohammad Siraj.^[27] During the auction they bought Shahbaz Ahmed, Wanindu Hasaranga, Harshal Patel, Finn Allen, Faf du Plessis, Mahipal Lomror, David Willey, Sherfane Rutherford, Suyash Prabhudessai, Aneeshwar Gautam, Dinesh Karthik, Anuj Rawat, Siddarth Kaul, Akash Deep, Luvnith Sisodia, Karn Sharma, Josh Hazlewood, Jason Behrendorff, Chama Milind.

The season saw the addition of two new teams making it a 10 team season. RCB finally managed to go past eliminator mark after consecutively losing in the previous two seasons, yet they failed to win the title after they lost to Rajasthan Royals in the Qualifier 2. The new captain Faf du Plessis ended the season with 468 runs, the highest for the team. The 2022 season was not a fruitful one for Virat Kohli, as he scored only 341 runs at an average of 22.73. Wanindu Hasaranga was the team's highest wicket taker with 26 wickets.^[28]

Ahead of the 2023 season RCB bought Reece Topley, Will Jacks, Rajan Kumar, Avinash Singh, Sonu Yadav, Himanshu Sharma, Manoj Bhadange in the auction.^[29]

Team identity

Livery

Logo from 2009 to 2015.

Logo from 2016 to 2019.

Vijay Mallya wanted to associate one of his top-selling liquor brands, either McDowell's No.1 or Royal Challenge with the team.^[30] The latter was chosen, hence the name.

Logo

The logo initially consisted the RC emblem in yellow on a circular red base with the black text "Royal Challengers Bangalore" in standard format surrounding the circular logo. The RC crown emblem with the roaring lion placed on the top of the logo was derived from the original Royal Challenge logo. No significant changes took place in the design of the logo except for the replacement of colour yellow with gold from 2009. This logo also had a dotted white circle around the RC emblem. The team also uses an alternate logo for the Game for Green matches where the green plants surround the logo and the text Game for Green is placed below the logo. The logo was redesigned in 2016 with the inclusion of black as a secondary color. The lion emblem in the crest was enlarged and the shield was omitted in the new design. In 2020, a new logo was unveiled featuring a bigger lion and the crown returning from the previous logo. The RC emblem was omitted for this crest.^[31]

Jersey

The jersey colors of the team in 2008 were red and golden yellow, the same as the unofficial Kannada flag, with player names printed in white and numbers printed in black in the rear. Yellow was replaced with gold in the future seasons. Starting from 2010, blue was introduced on the apparel as a tertiary colour. The jersey design saw tweaks every season, major being the one for 2014 where blue dominated over gold. From 2014, the player names and numbers were printed in gold. As of 2015, more yellowish shade of gold was used on the jerseys. Black replaced blue as the tertiary colour in 2016. Also from 2016, two versions of the jersey were used, one for home matches and the other for away ones. The kit design remained the same until 2019. The home and away concept was scrapped from 2020 and a darker shade of blue replaced black. A design similar to the previous "home" version of the jersey was adopted for 2020 and 2021. A completely redesigned jersey with the deep blue as a dominant shade with gold accents was used in 2022 while red was seen predominantly on the trousers.

RCB also has a tradition of replacing red with green on the kits for the "Game for Green" matches which occur once a season. In 2020, as a tribute to the COVID-19 frontline workers, a match was played by RCB with sky-blue colour replacing red on the kits.

Reebok manufactured kits for the team from 2008 to 2014 and Adidas supplied the kits in 2015. Zeven manufactured the kits for the team from 2016 to 2019.^[32] Wrogn manufactured the kits in 2020 while Puma became the official kit manufacturer since 2020.

Theme song

The theme song of the team for the 2008 season was "Jeetenge Hum Shaan Se". The team anthem, "Game for More" was created for the 2009 season. The music was composed by Amit Trivedi and written by Anshu Sharma. A new anthem, "Here We Go The Royal Challengers" was created for the 2013 season and was used till 2015. The anthem "Play Bold" was composed by Salim–Sulaiman, sung by Siddharth Basrur and was released in 2016 during the launch of jerseys for the season. For 2017, the same anthem was recomposed and sung by Anand Bhaskar in 6 languages – English, Kannada, Telugu, Bengali, Marathi and Punjabi.

Ambassadors

Katrina Kaif was the brand ambassador for the team in 2008. Deepika Padukone, Ramya, Puneeth Rajkumar, Shiva Rajkumar, Upendra and Ganesh have been the ambassadors for the team in the later seasons.^[33]

Kit manufacturers and sponsors

Year	Kit manufacturers	Shirt sponsor (front)	Shirt sponsor (back)	Chest sponsor
2008	Reebok	Royal Challenge	Royal Challenge	Reebok
2009				Whyte & Mackay
2010			McDowell's No.1
2011		McDowell's No.1	Royal Challenge
2012			McDowell's No.1	Royal Challenge
2013			Royal Challenge
2014		Huawei	Kingfisher
2015	Adidas			Midea
2016	Zeven	Hero Cycles		Lloyd
2017		Gionee
2018		Eros Now	Duraguard Cement	HP
2019		Wrogn	Pillsbury Cookie Cake	Valvoline
2020	Wrogn	Muthoot Fincorp	DP World	Myntra
2021	Puma			Exide
2022
2023		Qatar Airways[34]	KEI	Happilo

Rivalries

Royal Challengers Bangalore have active rivalries with Chennai Super Kings, Kolkata Knight Riders and Sunrisers Hyderabad.

Rivalry with Kolkata Knight Riders

The rivalry between Kolkata Knight Riders and Royal Challengers Bangalore is one of the oldest in the IPL. The inaugural match of IPL was played between both the teams in which KKR won by 140 runs due to a 158* off just 73 balls by Brendon McCullum.^[35]

In IPL 2009, both teams faced off against each other again in which RCB won both times. In the second time they faced each other, Ross Taylor scored a blitzkrieg 81* off 33 balls to win it for RCB by six wickets.^[36]

In the 2012 edition of IPL, KKR was at the lower half of the IPL table and needed to win the crucial match against RCB. KKR won the toss and chose to bat first. The skipper Gautam Gambhir led from the front with 93 (51). In reply, RCB lost wickets at regular intervals, as only Chris Gayle managed to put up a fight with a score of 86 (58).^[37] The next time they met, Gambhir again was the thorn of RCB as he top scored for KKR at a tough pitch, taking KKR to a competitive total of 165. RCB in reply made 129, as Lakshmipathy Balaji ripped through their lineup with a 4/18 in 4 overs.^[38]

In the 2015 IPL edition, RCB and KKR took part in a match reduced due to rain. It was reduced to a 10 over match. RCB won the toss and elected to field. For KKR, Andre Russell was the top scorer as he scored 45 off just 17 balls as he took them to a score of 111/4 in just 10 overs. Mitchell Starc took one wicket for 15 runs in 2 overs. In reply, RCB were at 0–48 at 3.4 overs before Brad Hogg got Chris Gayle out. After that, RCB stuttered and started to collapse as they were reduced to 3–81 in 7.2 overs. When Virat Kohli got out to Andre Russell, the match looked to be over for RCB. However, Mandeep Singh scored 45 off just 18 balls hitting 3 sixes and 4 fours.^[39]

In the 2017 IPL edition, Kolkata Knight Riders and Royal Challengers Bangalore locked horns with one another again. In the first match between them, RCB got KKR put for a score of 131 after KKR got off to a strong start of 0–48 in 3.3 overs. However, KKR reduced RCB to 49/9 before getting the final wicket, resulting in RCB getting the lowest score in the history of IPL – 49 all out. Nathan Coulter Nile, Colin de Grandhomme and Chris Woakes got three wickets each.^[39] In the next time they faced, Sunil Narine scored the fastest fifty of IPL then and the second fastest now (50 off 15 balls). KKR made the highest score made in powerplay in any IPL match, and chased down the target offered by RCB easily.^[39]

The 2019 IPL saw Virat Kohli scoring 84 off 49 and AB de Villiers scoring 63 off 32, taking RCB to a total of 205/3. KKR had a strong start scoring 28/0 in 1.3 overs before losing wickets at regular intervals and having their run rate reduced. They were 139/4 in 15.5 overs. Dinesh Karthik and Andre Russell however brought back the chase on control. Karthik got out scoring 19 off 15, leaving KKR at 153/5 in 17 overs. Andre Russell, however, took KKR over the line as he scored 48 off 13, hitting Mohammed Siraj for 23 runs in one over.^[39]

In the next match, RCB struck back as Virat Kohli made his 5th IPL century scoring 100 runs in 58 balls only. Moeen Ali scored 66 runs in only 28 balls as RCB scored 213 runs. For KKR, Nitish Rana scored 85 off 46 and Andre Russell scored 65 off 25, taking the game to the wire. However, RCB won the match by 10 runs, with Virat Kohli being Man of the Match.^[40]

Rivalry with Chennai Super Kings

Further information: Chennai Super Kings–Royal Challengers Bangalore rivalry

The rivalry with Chennai Super Kings stems from the Kaveri River water dispute between the states of Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. The rivalry is also called "Kaveri derby" and "South Indian derby".^[41][42][43] The Super Kings beat the Royal Challengers in the final of the 2011 IPL, the only meeting between the two teams at an IPL final.

Rivalry with Hyderabad franchises

Another notable rivalry between RCB is with the Hyderabad franchises, first with the Deccan Chargers and now with the Sunrisers Hyderabad. The Deccan Chargers won 6 out of the 11 clashes between the two and the Sunrisers currently lead by 12 games to 9. There is also a notable trend where the Hyderabad franchise has jeopardised RCB's campaign in some way or the other. The 2009 IPL final and the 2016 IPL final were both won by the Deccan Chargers and Sunrisers Hyderabad respectively. Their 2020 clash was also at a high stake eliminator, where a fifty by Kane Williamson trumped RCB to knock them out of IPL 2020. In a more recent example, despite their abysmal 2021 season, SRH were able to beat a resurgent RCB, causing them to end up in 3rd place and forcing them to play the eliminator, which they lost to KKR.^{[citation needed]}

Support and fan following

The Royal Challengers have a huge and passionate fan base all over India and especially in the city of Bangalore. The fans, known to be loyal and vocal in their support,^[44] often turn up in large numbers for RCB's home matches turning the stadium into what is called a "sea of red".^[45][46][47] They are well known for their chants of "R-C-B, R-C-B" and chants of "A-B-D, A-B-D" for their maestro batsman AB de Villiers,^[48][49] and the co-ordinated Mexican wave at the Chinnaswamy.^[50] The stadium organisers also provide the home team fans with cheer kits, RCB flags and noisemakers among other items.^[51] Royal Challengers Bangalore have formed a fan-following group named as Bold Army.

During the 2014 IPL, the Royal Challengers became the first team to provide free Wi-Fi connectivity to fans at their home ground. 50 access points were set up using fibre optic cables to provide the connectivity to fans on match days at the Chinnaswamy.^[52]

Seasons

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
2014	7th out of 8
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
2019	8th out of 8
2020	4th out of 8	Playoffs
2021	3rd out of 8
2022	3rd out of 10

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

Current squad

• Players with international caps are listed in bold.
•  *  denotes a player who is unavailable for the entire season
•  *  denotes a player who is currently unavailable for selection

No.	Name	Nationality	Birth date	Batting style	Bowling style	Year signed	Salary	Notes
Batters
13	Faf du Plessis	South Africa	13 July 1984 (age 38)	Right-handed	Right-arm leg-break	2022	₹7 crore (US$880,000)	Overseas; Captain
18	Virat Kohli	India	5 November 1988 (age 34)	Right-handed	Right-arm medium	2008	₹15 crore (US$1.9 million)
97	Rajat Patidar	India	1 June 1993 (age 29)	Right-handed	Right-arm off-break	2022	₹20 lakh (US$25,000)	[53]
	Finn Allen	New Zealand	22 April 1999 (age 24)	Right-handed	Right-arm off-break	2021	₹80 lakh (US$100,000)	Overseas
	Will Jacks	England	21 November 1998 (age 24)	Right-handed	Right-arm off-break	2023	₹3.2 crore (US$400,000)	Overseas[54]
Wicket-keepers
19	Dinesh Karthik	India	1 June 1985 (age 37)	Right-handed	Right-arm off-break	2022	₹5.5 crore (US$690,000)
27	Anuj Rawat	India	17 October 1999 (age 23)	Left-handed		2022	₹3.4 crore (US$430,000)
All-rounders
4	Michael Bracewell	New Zealand	14 February 1991 (age 32)	Left-handed	Right-arm off-break	2023	₹1 crore (US$130,000)	Overseas; Replacement for Will Jacks[54]
6	Mahipal Lomror	India	16 November 1999 (age 23)	Left-handed	Left-arm orthodox	2022	₹95 lakh (US$120,000)
15	David Willey	England	28 February 1990 (age 33)	Left-handed	Left-arm fast-medium	2022	₹2 crore (US$250,000)	Overseas
21	Shahbaz Ahmed	India	12 December 1994 (age 28)	Left-handed	Left-arm orthodox	2020	₹2.4 crore (US$300,000)
32	Glenn Maxwell	Australia	14 October 1988 (age 34)	Right-handed	Right-arm off-break	2021	₹11 crore (US$1.4 million)	Overseas
43	Suyash Prabhudessai	India	6 December 1997 (age 25)	Right-handed	Right-arm medium	2021	₹30 lakh (US$38,000)
49	Wanindu Hasaranga	Sri Lanka	29 July 1997 (age 25)	Right-handed	Right-arm leg-break	2021	₹10.75 crore (US$1.3 million)	Overseas
81	Kedar Jadhav	India	26 March 1985 (age 38)	Right-handed	Right-arm off-break	2023	₹1 crore (US$130,000)	Replacement for David Willey[55]
	Manoj Bhandage	India	5 October 1998 (age 24)	Left-handed	Right-arm medium-fast	2023	₹20 lakh (US$25,000)
	Sonu Yadav	India	11 November 1999 (age 23)	Right-handed	Right-arm medium-fast	2023	₹20 lakh (US$25,000)
Pace bowlers
1	Siddarth Kaul	India	19 May 1990 (age 32)	Right-handed	Right-arm medium	2022	₹8.25 crore (US$1.0 million)
7	Wayne Parnell	South Africa	30 July 1989 (age 33)	Left-handed	Left-arm fast-medium	2023	₹50 lakh (US$63,000)	Overseas; Replacement for Reece Topley[56]
8	Reece Topley	England	21 February 1994 (age 29)	Right-handed	Left-arm fast-medium	2023	₹1.9 crore (US$240,000)	Overseas[56]
11	Akash Deep	India	15 December 1996 (age 26)	Right-handed	Right-arm fast-medium	2021	₹20 lakh (US$25,000)
16	Harshal Patel	India	23 November 1990 (age 32)	Right-handed	Right-arm medium	2021	₹10.75 crore (US$1.3 million)
31	Vijaykumar Vyshak	India	21 January 1997 (age 26)	Right-handed	Right-arm medium	2023	₹20 lakh (US$25,000)	Replacement for Rajat Patidar[56]
38	Josh Hazlewood	Australia	8 January 1991 (age 32)	Left-handed	Right-arm fast-medium	2022	₹7.75 crore (US$970,000)	Overseas
45	Avinash Singh	India	5 July 1998 (age 24)	Right-handed	Right-arm fast	2023	₹60 lakh (US$75,000)
73	Mohammed Siraj	India	13 March 1994 (age 29)	Right-handed	Right-arm fast-medium	2018	₹7 crore (US$880,000)
	Rajan Kumar	India	8 July 1996 (age 26)	Left-handed	Left-arm fast-medium	2023	₹20 lakh (US$25,000)
Spin bowlers
33	Karn Sharma	India	23 September 1987 (age 35)	Left-handed	Right-arm leg-break	2022	₹50 lakh (US$63,000)
	Himanshu Sharma	India	6 June 1998 (age 24)	Right-handed	Right-arm leg-break	2023	₹20 lakh (US$25,000)
Source: RCB Players

Administration and support staff

Position	Name
Chairman	Prathamesh Mishra
Team manager	Soumya Deep Pyne
Director of cricket operations	Mike Hesson
Head coach	Sanjay Bangar
Batting and spin bowling coach	Sridharan Sriram
Bowling coach	Adam Griffith
Head of scouting and fielding coach	Malolan Rangarajan
Head physiotherapist	Evan Speechly
Strength and conditioning coach	Basu Shanker
Source: RCB Staff