Royal Challengers Bengaluru

Royal Challengers Bangalore, owned by United Spirits, are one of the initial eight franchises in the Indian Premier League, who have played in all the seasons of the league so far. RCB are also the franchise with most appearances in the IPL final without ever winning the title — three. They reached the summit clash of the league back in 2009, 2011 and most recently in 2016, only to lose on all three occasions.

However, over the course of the league, several of RCB players have produced feats worthy of being at the Mount Rushmore of franchise cricket. Longtime Virat Kohli still holds the record for most runs in a single IPL season - 973 in 2016 - and is also the all-time leading run scorer in the league. Chris Gayle has six hundreds to his name in the IPL, one of which saw him score 175, the highest any player has in a single IPL innings. AB de Villiers, another former RCB player, has been synonymous with multiple thrilling knocks in clutch situations. The team is currently captained by Faf du Plessis after Virat Kohli gave up his captaincy in 2021.

Back in 2008, in the first-ever season of the league, it was RCB who kickstarted the league in the first ever game of IPL against the Kolkata Knight Riders at their home ground Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bangalore. It was a match that saw the home side being taken down by the flamboyant KKR opener Brendon McCullum as he waltzed his way to 158* off just 73 deliveries.

RCB squad for IPL 2024: Faf du Plessis (c), Glenn Maxwell, Virat Kohli, Rajat Patidar, Anuj Rawat, Dinesh Karthik, Suyash Prabhudessai, Will Jacks, Mahipal Lomror, Karn Sharma, Manoj Bhandage, Mayank Dagar, Vijaykumar Vyshak, Akash Deep, Mohammed Siraj, Reece Topley, Himanshu Sharma, Rajan Kumar, Cameron Green, Alzarri Joseph, Yash Dayal, Tom Curran, Lockie Ferguson, Swapnil Singh, Saurav Chauhan