IPL 2018 Auction: Team Preview

Royal Challengers Bangalore

With a line-up boasting the likes of Virat Kohli, AB de Villiers, Chris Gayle and Shane Watson, Royal Challengers Bangalore were the team to beat in the IPL for the past few seasons on paper, but, unfortunately, they were unable to lift the trophy even once despite making it to the finals in 2016. They had a disappointing IPL 2017, finishing bottom of the table.

Who have Royal Challengers Bangalore Retained?

Royal Challengers Bangalore had one of the easiest jobs on retention day and they did not have to think twice to retain Virat Kohli and AB de Villiers, two of the most destructive batsmen in world cricket. However, they also had a massive surprise in store for all of us, opting to retain Sarfaraz Khan, a highly talented youngster who barely featured for Royal Challengers Bangalore the past two seasons.

With the retention of Kohli, de Villiers and Sarfaraz, Royal Challengers Bangalore are left with a purse of Rs 49 crore or $7.67 million on auction day. They also have 2 RTM cards to work with which they can use on either two capped Indian players, an overseas player or on an uncapped Indian player.

Who will Royal Challengers Bangalore look to use their RTM card on?

Chris Gayle, Shane Watson, KL Rahul, Yuzvendra Chahal, Kedar Jadhav, Avesh Khan are some of the high profile names Royal Challengers Bangalore will look to utilize the RTM card on.

Gayle is the most destructive batsman world cricket has ever seen, Watson is one of the most experienced all-rounders while Rahul, Chahal and Jadhav are an integral part of the Indian T20 side. Avesh is a talented fast bowler with genuine pace.