Royal Challengers Bengaluru’s Virat Kohli kisses the Indian Premier League winners’ trophy during celebrations with fans at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru, India. (PTI) They had also come this close three times before, close enough to see it, feel it, but not close enough to hold it. But their time finally came and Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) and Virat Kohli became the Indian Premier League (IPL) champions last season (2025) after defeating Punjab Kings (PBKS) in the final.For the first time, RCB will enter the IPL auction to be held on December 16 in Abu Dhabi with the badge of champions.
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Under the leadership of Rajat Patidar, RCB produced their best ever IPL season. They won 11 of their 16 games and finished with a 68.8 winning percentage as the title drought ended.Before the auction, RCB released Liama Livingstone, Lungi Ngidi, Mayank Agarwal, Manoj Bhandage, Swastik Chikara and Mohit Rathee.With a purse of Rs 16.40 crore remaining, RCB are left with 8 slots, 2 of which are overseas, to fill. With the auction around the corner, here’s a look at the IPL champions’ strengths, the work they need to do and the players they could look for in the auction.
Fixed opening, blasting finish
Virat Kohli and Phil Salt gave RCB good starts throughout the season and were the top two scorers for their team with 657 and 403 runs respectively. While Salt was explosive with a strike rate of 175.98, Kohli gave RCB solidity at the top.The middle order was held together by Devdutt Padikkal and skipper Rajat Patidar, both of whom had a good season with 247 and 312 runs respectively.But perhaps their strongest point in the batting was Tim David and Jitesh Sharma and on some occasions Romario Shepherd who provided RCB with a blitzkrieg finish. Tim David scored at a strike rate of 185.15, Jitesh hit 261 runs at 176.35 and Romario struck at 291.67 in the three innings he played.
The opposition jumped
Batting can help you win matches but it’s the bowling that wins the tournament and that’s what happened with RCB last year. With Josh Hazelwood as their top wicket taker (22 wickets at an economy of 8.77), RCB had three bowlers in the top 10 highest wicket takers list in the 2025 season, Bhuvneshwar Kumar (17 wickets at 9.29) and Krunal Pandya (17.2, another two wickets) at 8.Yash Dayal (13 wickets at 9.50), also had his own set of contributions.
Things to think about at auction
RCB’s bowling depth is an area of concern. Hazlewood has already been ruled out of the Ashes and with the T20 World Cup, his workload management is an issue. Dayal has not played top-level cricket since the 2025 IPL final.RCB will almost certainly look for overseas fast-bowling reinforcements and a home-grown seamer who can hit.New Zealander Matt Henry could be a similar overseas option for Hazlewood.Shivam Mavi, Kartik Tyagi, Kamlesh Nagarkoti, Akash Madhwal among others are some of the Indian fast-bowling options RCB could target.After the release of Liam Livingstone, it is possible that RCB will try Jacob Bethell in the middle order. Bethell played 2 matches last year and scored 67 runs at a nice strike rate of 171.59.However, RCB may also look for the Indian explosive batter for the middle order as a backup option for Devdutt Padikkal.Moreover, there will be no surprise if RCB go all-in for the spinner as well.With a purse of Rs 16.40 crore, the IPL champions are far from perfect and RCB have plenty of shopping to do in Abu Dhabi.
