IPL 2025 defending champions RCB have retained most of their key players who played a big role in reaching the IPL title for the first time. RCB has a relatively better purse than many teams, but they still cannot be seen as having much competition for any players in the mini-auction.
Royal Challengers Bangalore won the last edition of the IPL and will undoubtedly be one of the most confident teams this season. However, some of their key players have also faced persistent injury problems, with some remaining prominently out of touch.
Rajat Patidar’s team is still confident of retaining their title despite another major setback on their home ground; M Chinnaswamy Stadium will no longer host Challengers matches following the stampede incidents.
Defending champions RCB release English all-rounder after poor season
The defending champions included English all-rounder Liam Livingstone for most of the season. However, he did not prove to be as promising as he should have been and was therefore deemed ideal for release by the Champions.
He seemed to be their only weak link in the batting order. Their lack of skill didn’t trouble RCB as Jitesh Sharma and Tim David played some remarkable hands to offset their poor performance.
Bought at a whopping price of Rs 8.75 crore, Livingstone could not score more than 112 runs in his 10 matches and took just 2 wickets after bowling 9 overs in the season. Also, his strike rate dropped to 130, which is very low by his standards.
RCB players continued their title winning campaign
The RCB team has retained most of its core squad, and considering the form of Josh Hazlewood, Tim David, Rajat Patidar and Jitesh Sharma, they are most likely to retain them. Additionally, RCB kept faith in Romario Shepherd and Jacob Bethel, two talented youngsters who did not get enough playing opportunities last season.
rcb retained players – Rajat Patidar (captain), Virat Kohli, Devdutt Padikkal, Phil Salt, Jitesh Sharma, Krunal Pandya, Swapnil Singh, Tim David, Romario Shepherd, Jacob Bethel, Josh Hazlewood, Yash Dayal, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Nuwan Thushara, Rasikh Salam, Abhinandan Singh and Suyyash Sharma.
RCB players released before mini-auction
They have released most of the players as per expectations, except for one logical option for fast bowler Josh Hazlewood. Although they still have Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Yash Dayal, they have no option for Hazlewood after the release of Lungi Ngidi. This also seemed a bit unfair, because he was not even worth that much wealth.
RCB released players – Liam Livingstone, Swastik Chikara, Mayank Agarwal, Tim Seifert, Manoj Bhandage, Lungi Ngidi, Blessing Muzarabani and Mohit Rathi.
With a purse of Rs 16.4 crore, the Royal Challengers might not be actively considering some good selections, especially after players like Ravi Bishnoi, Andre Russell and Gerald Coetzee were picked in the mini-auction.
ALSO READ: RR’s retained and released players list for IPL 2026: Rajasthan Royals full squad ahead of the auction
