Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) has the most loyal fan base in the Indian Premier League (IPL) tournament, even though they haven't won a single trophy yet. They have been to the finals on multiple occasions, but due to sheer lack of effort, they couldn't lay their hands on the IPL trophy. Not only IPL, they have also not won a single Champions League trophy.
RCB has always had a brilliant batting attack, with players such as Virat Kohli, Chris Gayle, AB de Villiers, Glenn Maxwell, and many more. These players have contributed a lot to the team's performance. In 2012, RCB went on to hit the highest team total in the tournament, which was unbreakable until last season. However, what they have always lacked is a talented bowling attack. There have been multiple instances in the past where the team has scored above 200 runs with the bat, but the bowlers failed to defend it, even on their home ground.
Now, regarding the retention list that RCB has released ahead of the mega auction 2024, Virat Kohli is their first retention. The franchise is spending INR 21 crores on the player, who has been with the team for a long time now. Kohli has been loyal to the franchise and had clearly said that he would like to retire in the 'red jersey'.
RCB's retention list is out
RCB is known to have a star-studded core in every season however, this time the men in red are going for a new strategy as the players they have retained apart from Virat Kohli (21cr) are Rajat Patidar( 11cr) and Yash Dayal (5cr). This is one of the rarest strategies we have seen from RCB where they have let go of some star players and have gone on to retain upcoming Indian talent and have let go of some big stars from their side.
Virat to come back as captain?
This is a very unique strategy by the franchise which has retained just three players which will also leave them with a lot of money with 83 Cr in their purse. However, the captaincy questions as they have let go of big players like Faf Du Plessis and Glenn Maxwell. The last two seasons saw Du Plessis leading the side after Virat Kohli stepped aside, but this might be the day when we get to see Virat take the reins again for maybe one final time. However, seeing that RCB has not put any money into the retention makes us believe that they might have some big plans in the mega auction.