Cracking the Mystery: Why RCB Hasn't Won an IPL Title Yet?

(Royal Challengers Bangalore dugout after losing the IPL 2016 Finals)

16 seasons, a number of superstars, millions of fans, and billions of memories. But a thing that is missing is the Indian Premier League Trophy. Such has been the story of Royal Challengers Bangalore who hasn’t won a trophy despite being one of the most successful teams on the Internet. With a big fanbase, the expectations have always been big but the performances haven't been up to the mark and this is the reason why this team is trophyless despite having some big names in the game. Players like Virat Kohli, Glenn Maxwell, AB de Villiers, Chris Gayle and many more tried their best to bring the trophy home, but have failed consistently and hence the fans have always questioned the slogan “Ee Sala Cup Namde”.

Decoding the reasons behind RCB’s Trophy Drought

Since 2008, there have been 16 seasons of the Indian Premier League and the fans have always got some of the best moments with them here. However, things haven’t been the same for the Royal Challengers Bangalore fans as despite reaching the Finals 3 times, they have always failed at the last step, and hence the fans have been questioning why this team has failed to clinch the IPL trophy even once. Let’s decode it now:

1. Over-dependency of the team on Virat Kohli

Virat Kohli is one of the biggest names in Indian cricket and has ruled the game for more than a decade now. Winning the 2011 ODI World Cup and the 2013 Champions Trophy, he has tasted success with the team. However, his fate in the IPL hasn’t been the same as he has been associated with the Royal Challengers Bangalore since 2008 and has failed to get his hands on the trophy even once. In the RCB camp, he is the only player who has been associated with the team from the first season.

(Virat Kohli celebrates after hitting a century for the RCB team)

For the Royal Challengers Bangalore, he has got 7624 runs from the 244 matches played while maintaining a strike rate of 130.75. His most impactful season came in 2016 when he got 973 runs from just 16 matches but wasn’t able to lift the trophy because of no support from the other players and thus the team hasn’t done well because of this.

2. Only 2 effective foreign players

Over the years, Royal Challengers Bangalore has always been dependent on their 3 batters who would win the match for them. One is Virat Kohli and the rest 2 have been the foreigners which has made things difficult for them here. Earlier, it was the duo of AB de Villiers and Chris Gayle which helped the team to come out at the top during the difficult situations. But with the failure of these two foreign players along with Virat Kohli meant that no other player had the ability to step up and win the game for them in the league.

(AB de Villiers, Virat Kohli and Chris Gayle in the RCB jersey)

However, with the release of Chris Gayle and the retirement of AB de Villiers, the Royal Challengers Bangalore had to fill out the spots of both players and hence they bought Glenn Maxwell and Fad du Plessis to make sure Virat Kohli got the support. But it became the same story again as the team was now reliant on the big 3 named as K.G.F (Kohli, Glenn, Faf) and hence the batting order just started revolving around them.

3. Lack of Quality bowlers

Out of all the 10 teams playing in the Indian Premier League, having a quality bowling attack is a must. There has been a famous saying in cricket that “Bowlers win your tournaments” and this is what the Royal Challengers Bangalore team has lacked over the years. Under the captaincy of Virat Kohli, Bangalore played with the bowlers such as R Vinay Kumar, Harshal Patel, Umesh Yadav, Varun Aaron and others who were not effective in the death overs of the game and hence the opponents were able to chase down the targets easily.

(RCB bowlers during the 2020 IPL season)

In the 2024 season too, Royal Challengers Bangalore failed to come up with a perfect bowling unit and hence they are struggling in the tournament. They managed to buy Yash Dayal, Lockie Ferguson, Reece Topley and Mohammed Siraj who do not have the ability to bowl in the death overs of the game and hence the team has failed to make it big in the matches.

4. Not backing the star players

The Indian Premier League has seen two types of teams in terms of respecting a player who has been with them for a long period. One such type is Chennai Super Kings who make sure that the environments are perfect for the players to grow while on the other hand, there is Royal Challengers Bangalore where the players aren’t given the backing despite performing well for the team. In the RCB camp, players aren’t given securities over their spots and hence it doesn’t allow the players to play freely.

(Chris Gayle disappointed after getting out against Punjab Kings)

In an interview with Chris Gayle, he said that RCB isn’t having a positive environment where players feel that they are a part of the group. Moreover, in the auction, he was told that the management would rebuy him but they didn’t even bid for him and hence it creates a sense of insecurity among the players that their spot is always in danger. The same thing was done with Yuzvendra Chahal who was left out of the franchise after the 2021 IPL season.

5. No proper Indian batter after Virat Kohli

One of the major reasons why the Royal Challengers Bangalore team has failed to come up through the ranks is because of the lack of Indian batters who have played for a longer time for the franchise. In the 16 seasons of the IPL, Virat Kohli has scored more than 7000 runs for the RCB team while the second Indian player who is on the list of the most runs is Rahul Dravid who played for the team during the 2008-2010 season and got 898 runs from the 43 matches played and the difference shows that the team has hardly invested on the Indian players.

(Virat Kohli and Devdutt Padikkal during a match for the RCB team)

Coming to the last few seasons of the tournament, Royal Challengers Bangalore managed to invest in some of the Indian players like KL Rahul, Devdutt Padikkal, Rajat Patidar and many more. But most of them have been released by the team and before the 2025 IPL season, it will be interesting to see whether the team keeps the current lot of the Indian players with them or will again release them before the auction.

6. No proper strategy in the IPL Auction

It has been often said that half of the tournament is won at the Auction table if a proper team is formed and for that, it requires immense contribution from the management sitting at the table with their strategies and the players that they are targeting. And here, the Royal Challengers Bangalore team has always been in the backseat because of the strategies that they have followed in the auction. They have always failed to buy quality bowlers and hence it has affected their performances.

(RCB’s management at the IPL Auction table)

Besides this, in the 2022 IPL Auction, Royal Challengers Bangalore had an amazing chance of signing up David Warner who would have formed an amazing opening pair with Virat Kohli along with the captaincy material. But instead, the team went with Faf du Plessis, who has also done well but the fans were looking for David Warner to come up in the team.

Besides all this, there have been numerous other reasons that can be taken up while noticing why RCB has failed to come up well in the IPL season. Furthermore, the expectations of the fans have always been broken badly by the team and in the upcoming seasons, the team and the management will be looking forward to correcting themselves now.