Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) all-time best XI in IPL history

Royal Challengers Bangalore have been one of the most exciting teams in the history of the IPL. While a lot of teams have envied RCB’s strength in batting over the years, their bowling department has never been up to the mark. Although the Bengaluru-based franchise hasn’t had much success to boast about, they have finished as runners up on three occasions (2009, 2011 and 2016). The Royal Challengers have a huge fan base all over India, largely due to Virat Kohli.

Rahul Dravid was chosen as their icon and captain for the inaugural edition of the IPL. They experimented with a lot of captaincy options like Kevin Pieterson and Anil Kumble, after finally settling on Virat Kohli. Virat Kohli, along with the likes of AB De Villiers and former player Chris Gayle, have carried the mantle of the team’s batting for the past decade. The team plays it’s home matches in the M. Chinnaswamy stadium.

The franchise has always been a formidable side to compete with. Once decorated by the likes of Rahul Dravid, Jacques Kallis, Chris Gayle and Anil Kumble, RCB now have some world-class cricketers such as Virat Kohli, Yuzvendra Chahal and AB de Villiers. Out of all the teams that have failed to win the trophy even once, Royal Challengers Bangalore are probably the most successful as they have come close to winning it multiple times.

Now let us take a look at their all-time best XI:

1. Rahul Dravid

Rahul Dravid is one of the greatest batsmen to grace the field. He was known as a defensive batsman who should be confined to Test cricket and was dropped from the ODI squad due to a low strike rate. However, in a later period of his career, he began consistently scoring runs in ODIs as well. He faced a similar situation at the beginning of the IPL, but as always he let his bat do the talking for him.

Dravid was RCB’s captain for the 2008 IPL. He plied his trade at the M. Chinnaswamy stadium for three years before spending another 3 year period with Rajasthan Royals. During his association with the Royal Challengers Bangalore, the Indore-born batsman scored 1132 runs in 45 innings. He still remains in the top 5 run-scorers for the franchise to this date.

Although he faced criticism from Vijay Mallya for selecting an unbalanced team for the 2008 campaign, he was stupendous with that season. Mr Dependable scored 371 runs which came at a strike rate 124.49 and an average of 28.53. He was often the saving grace for his side in what turned out to be a very disappointing campaign for the Royal Challengers Bangalore.