RCB Team 2026 – Captain, New Players & Retained Stars

The defending champions, the Royal Challengers Bengaluru, bought a total of eight players in the auction. Venkatesh Iyer was the most expensive player for the franchise in the auction, and RCB shelled out INR 7 crore for him. They fought a bidding war against the Kolkata Knight Riders. Mangesh Yadav, a 23-year-old all-rounder from Madhya Pradesh, was the second-most expensive player for the team. Sunrisers Hyderabad also showed interest in signing Mangesh, and RCB won the bidding war with a bid of INR 5.20 crore. 

RCB picked up the remaining six players for their base price, including overseas players Jordan Cox and Jacob Duffy. RCB had a purse value of INR 16.40 crore. They retained a total of 17 players before going into the auction. They released a total of six players before the auction, including Liam Livingstone and Lungi Ngidi.

RCB was one of the most successful teams at the auction table this year. They bid for a total of 10 players in the auction and picked up eight out of them. Ravi Singh and Auqib Nabi Dar were the two players from whom RCB made a bid but failed to pick them.

RCB faced the Punjab Kings in the final of IPL 2025 and scored 190 runs for the loss of nine wickets. PBKS finished with 184 runs for the loss of seven wickets, and RCB won the match by six runs. Krunal Pandya took two wickets for 17 runs and won the Player of the Match award.

Players bought in IPL 2026 Auction:

Here is RCB’s squad for IPL 2026:

Virat Kohli, Josh Hazlewood, Phil Salt (wk), Rajat Patidar (c), Jitesh Sharma (wk), Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Rasikh Salam, Krunal Pandya, Yash Dayal, Tim David, Suyash Sharma, Jacob Bethell, Devdutt Padikkal, Nuwan Thushara, Romario Shepherd, Swapnil Singh, Abhinandan Singh, Kanishk Chouhan, Vihaan Malhotra, Vicky Ostwal, Jordan Cox (wk), Mangesh Yadav, Satvik Deswal, Jacob Duffy, Venkatesh lyer