How many times have RCB won the IPL? Royal Challengers Bangalore team history, list of seasons, best players

Royal Challengers Bangalore are a powerhouse of the Indian Premier League, one of the most instantly recognisable franchises with a huge fanbase.

And over the years, their team has included the great and the good of world cricket, with India icon Virat Kohli one of the faces of the franchise.

But what about the IPL history of the side based in Bengaluru? How have they fared in the 15 years since their inception?

The Sporting News goes through the RCB history right here...

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How many IPL titles have RCB won? 

Always the bridesmaids, never the bride. Royal Challengers Bangalore have always been exactly that – challengers. They've never taken home the IPL title, despite appearing in the final on three occasions, 2009, 2011 and 2016, losing each time.

That's despite having Kohli in their ranks every single year since the tournament began, along with a whole host of other white-ball cricket greats.

RCB IPL history 

After finishing seventh out of eight teams in the very first IPL in 2008, RCB soon got their act together and reached the final in 2009. But despite restricting Deccan Chargers to just 143/6, with Indian spinning legend Anil Kumble taking four wickets, the Challengers' batting line-up failed in a low-scoring final in Johannesburg. No batter scored more than Roelof van der Merwe's 32 for RCB and they lost out by six runs.

They were back in the final two years later, though, after finishing top of the pile in the group stage with only four defeats from their 14 games. RCB had an all-star squad for the 2011 tournament and they were arguably the best side before a catastrophic performance in the final against Chennai Super Kings. CSK set a mammoth 206 to win after Murali Vijay smoked 95 off 52 balls and RCB got nowhere near the target, finishing 58 runs short with none of their batters passing a half-century.

RCB's third and most recent IPL final appearance to date came in the 2016 campaign when they lost a nail-biting final to Sunrisers Hyderabad. SRH set 209 to win and RCB came agonisingly close, with Chris Gayle scoring 76 and Kohli 54 in a century opening stand, before a second half collapse in the chase left the Challengers eight runs short and handed the title to Sunrisers.

Away from finals, RCB has the privilege (and ignominy) of holding both the records for IPL's highest score and lowest score, 263/5 and 49 all out respectively.

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RCB list of IPL seasons

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RCB best players

Royal Challengers Bangalore have, out of all the IPL teams, arguably had the biggest and best names to feature for them over the years.

For nearly a decade, they were able to field Virat Kohli, Chris Gayle and AB de Villiers – three of T20 cricket's best ever batters – together in a formidable batting line-up. In the same period, they had Shane Watson and KL Rahul but somehow weren't able to win the tournament.

Glenn Maxwell talks about dealing with his dip in form in 2015, and a swashbuckling century against Sri Lanka in the CWC that helped stage a comeback in his career, on @eatsurenow presents #RCBPodcast! 💯#PlayBold @gmaxi_32 @danishsait pic.twitter.com/KZ2yUFbcWU

— Royal Challengers Bangalore (@RCBTweets) March 7, 2023

In the early years, RCB were anchored by India legend Rahul Dravid and in 2009 paid a record fee to sign up England star Kevin Pietersen.

Kohli is still around for the 2023 season and in recent years he's been joined by fellow experienced heads Faf du Plessis and Dinesh Karthik, while Aussie hitter Glenn Maxwell – AKA 'The Big Show' – provides some explosive middle-order firepower. It remains to be seen whether that's enough to break RCB's longstanding trophy duck.

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