Royal Challengers Bengaluru

Royal Challengers Bengaluru is one of the main IPL teams that has been around since the formation of the competition. Unfortunately, they are still waiting for their first title, having been unlucky a couple of times before. This season they enter the tournament with a few serious strengths.

Besides their top traits, this team also comes with a few weaknesses that are worth mentioning. The ones that you should know about are the following:

This IPL season, Royal Challengers will rely on a couple of key players. Those are Virat Kohli, Liam Livingstone, Rajat Patidar, Phil Salt, Tim David, Yash Dayal, and Bhuvneshwar Kumar.

Historical Performance

Royal Challengers Bengaluru has played in the IPL since 2008 making it one of 5 teams to compete in every season so far. Its name comes from a liqueur brand established by United Spirits, which is the owner of the club.

Fans follow the team’s matches at their home ground M. Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru, Karnataka. This stadium can hold up to 40,000 spectators.

In the team’s long IPL history, the Royal Challengers managed to qualify in 9 playoffs. This puts it in third spot in terms of teams with the most playoffs in the league. But, they managed to book a final in only 3 of the featured quarter-finals. Sadly, the club failed to win the IPL title in all of them.

We should note that this club holds the record for the highest total score conceded in an innings. They suffered 287 innings against Sunrisers Hyderabad. Royal Challengers Bengaluru also has the lowest total score achieved in a single innings. This occurred against Kolkata Knight Riders where they made just 49 innings.

In terms of player records, Virat Kohli holds the record for the most run-score in the team and in the league. He has 8,004 in the IPL and 8,428 for Royal Challengers. In terms of wickets, YS Chahal is leading the team’s records with a total of 139 wickets.

Royal Challengers Bengaluru in Recent Seasons

The last couple of seasons were pretty solid for Royal Challengers Bengaluru. In the 2020 IPL season, the team was somewhat lucky during the group stage.

They finished in 4th place with a slightly better net run rate than Kolkata Knight Riders. During the playoffs, they met with Sunrisers Hyderabad and lost the match by 6 wickets.

For 2021, the team managed to improve their performance after getting 18 points and finishing 3rd. They had equal points with Chennai Super Kings in 2nd place, but their net run rate was much worse. In the quarter-finals, they lost against Kolkata Knight Riders, which ended their promising campaign.

The following season, Royal Challengers Bengaluru booked their third playoff in a row. They finished the group stage in the 4th spot with 16 points. In the quarter-finals, they won against Lucknow Super Giants by 14 runs. But, they failed to go past Rajasthan Royals in the semi-finals after losing by 7 wickets.

In 2023, the team’s form was very inconsistent causing them to end the first stage in 6th place. They won 7 and lost 7 matches, accumulating 14 points, which wasn’t enough for a place in the quarter-finals.

Finally, last season Royal Challengers successfully went back to the IPL playoffs. They’ve achieved that with the same points and form as last year. Plus, the team had equal points with 3 other clubs. However, they also featured the best net run rate in the league, allowing them to position above them.

But, they weren’t that lucky during the quarter-finals against Rajasthan Royals. The latter was the better team as they beat Royal Challengers by 4 wickets.

Royal Challengers Bengaluru Players 2025

Among the Royal Challengers Bengaluru players 2025, you’ll find 3 retained players, 2 uncapped cricketers, and 17 new players. It looks like the team decided to make some drastic team changes this season. You can check all of them out below.

Batters

There are 4 cricketers in the squad who can only perform as batters. On the list are 2 retained players and 2 new young and prosperous individuals. Here’s what you need to know about them:

• Virat Kohli – A team legend and captain who played all 17 seasons with Royal Challengers Bengaluru. He’s a right-handed top-order batter who’s on top of the list in terms of the most runs scored in the league.
• Devdutt Padikkal – A former Royal Challengers player who came back after 2 years at Rajasthan Royals and one with the Super Giants. He’s a left-handed batter with a 1,559 run record in 64 matches.
• Rajat Patidar – Another retained right-handed top-order batter who’s been part of the club since 2021. So far, he has managed to appear in 27 IPL matches and score 799 runs, averaging 32.74.
• Swastik Chikara – This is a 19-year-old right-handed batter who just joined Royal Challengers. He’s a young prospect who is yet to make his IPL debut. Hopefully, he’ll get to do it this season.

Wicket-Keepers

The Royal Challengers Bengaluru squad 2025 also features 2 wicket-keepers who seriously help the team this year. Both of them are newly-acquired players who are ready to show what they’ve got. Below we’ll describe these top wicket-keepers.

• Jitesh Sharma – A right-handed wicket-keeper batter who was a key player at Punjab Kings before joining Royal Challengers. He appeared in just 3 IPL seasons and accumulated 730 runs.
• Phil Salt – This is a great right-handed wicket-keeper and aggressive opening batter who just signed for the team. Last season, he scored 435 runs in 12 matches and ended up winning the league with Kolkata.

All-Rounders

In the list of team cricketers, you’ll come across 8 all-rounders. Half of them are domestic while the other half are overseas players. It looks like there is a good mix of left-handed and right-handed batters and bowlers. Here are the featured all-rounders that you should know about:

• Krunal Pandya – A left-handed batter and slow left-arm orthodox bowler who’s bringing a lot of experience to the team. In the past, he managed to win 3 IPL titles with Mumbai Indians and captain Lucknow Super Giants.
• Liam Livingstone – Another top all-rounder who represents England in international cricket. He plays as a right-handed batter and right-arm off-break bowler who achieved 939 runs and 11 wickets in 39 IPL matches.
• Jacob Bethell – Yet another English cricketer who prefers a left-handed batting and slow left-arm orthodox bowling style. He’s 21 years of age and is ready to make his IPL debut this season.
• Tim David – An Australian all-rounder who clubs usually use as a right-handed middle-order batter. But, he can also play as a right-arm off-break bowler if the team requires it.
• Romario Shepherd – This is a West Indies all-rounder who played as a backup at a few IPL teams. He’s a tall cricketer who can act as a right-handed batter and right-arm medium-fast bowler.
• Manoj Bhandage – Royal Challengers acquired this all-rounder in 2023 as a cover for the starting squad and he’s still waiting for his debut. He uses a left-handed batting and right-arm medium-fast bowling style.
• Swapnil Singh – A 34-year-old right-handed batter and slow left-arm orthodox bowler who’s been part of the team since 2024. He’s another backup player who last year made 6 wickets and 39 runs.
• Mohit Rathee – This all-rounder will also act as a backup and rotation player as he lacks playing time and experience. He can perform as a right-handed batter and right-arm leg-break bowler.

Bowlers

For the 2025 IPL season, Royal Challengers Bengaluru decided to use 7 pace attackers and only one spin bowler. The team included only one retained player and acquired 3 from overseas. You’ll read about them below this segment.

• Suyash Sharma – A former Kolkata right-arm leg-break pace bowler who just joined Royal Challengers. He failed to take a single wicket in 2024, but he did take 10 wickets in 13 matches in 2023.
• Bhuvneshwar Kumar – This right-arm medium bowler who can swing the ball both ways. In the IPL, he managed to take 181 wickets as well as win the league in 2016 with Sunrisers Hyderabad.
• Josh Hazlewood – An Australian tall right-arm medium-fast bowler who was part of the team between 2022 and 2023. Sadly, he failed to make a single appearance due to injuries. Hopefully, that won’t happen this season.
• Yash Dayal – Royal Challenger signed this left-arm medium-fast bowler last season where he managed to take 15 wickets. He previously played for Gujarat Titans, which he helped win the league in 2022.
• Rasikh Salam Dar – A 25-year-old right-arm medium-fast bowler who acted as a rotation for several clubs in the past. He’ll have similar duties at Royal Challengers unless he proves himself more useful.
• Lungi Ngidi – This is a South African right-arm medium-fast bowler who signed for Royal Challengers this season. He previously played for Chennai Super Kings where he helped them win 2 IPL titles.
• Nuwan Thushara – The team acquired this Sri Lankan right-arm medium-fast bowler from Mumbai Indians. For his previous club, he managed to take 8 wickets in 7 matches. But, in all T20 competitions, he has a total of 120 wickets in 87 matches.
• Abhinandan Singh – A 27-year-old right-arm medium-fast bowler who’s still searching for an IPL debut. The team will surely see him as a backup player for the 2025 season.

Royal Challengers Bengaluru Captain

In terms of personal awards, Kohli managed to win numerous honours. Among them are 2 Orange Caps, one IPL MVP, 4 ICC ODI Player of the Year, Test Player of the Year, and many more.

Royal Challengers Bengaluru Rivals

The fans of Royal Challengers Bengaluru see 2 IPL teams as their main rivals. One of them is Kolkata Knight Riders, which they have competed against since day one. Many refer to their rivalry as the El Primero of the IPL as this is the first rivalry in the competition.

Both teams faced one another in 34 matches where Kolkata won 20 and Royal got 14 victories. One of those clashes was during the 2021 IPL quarter-finals where the Knight Riders won by 4 wickets.

The rivalry started becoming more intense in 2013 after a verbal spat between Kohli and Gambhir. Royal Challengers even set up the record for the lowest innings (49) in the IPL against Kolkata.

Another team that Royal Challengers’ fans see as their rival is Chennai Super Kings. However, the latter doesn’t really see them as a competitor. Super Kings won 21 out of the total 33 against the featured club. Bengaluru has 11 wins while one match ended with no result.

Chennai beat them in 2 semi-finals in 2009 and 2015. Both sides also met in the 2011 IPL quarter-finals where Royal Challengers ended up winning. But, they clashed once more in the final. This time, Super Kings won by 58 runs and took home the trophy.