Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB), the defending IPL champions, have released their list of retained and released players ahead of the upcoming mini-auction. In a significant move, the team has released Liam Livingstone. Additionally, they have released Swastik Chikara, Mayank Agarwal, Tim Seifert, Manoj Bhandage, Lungi Ngidi, Blessing Muzarabani, and Mohit Rathi.
RCB Retains Its Winning Combination
Regarding RCB’s retentions, they have decided to retain their winning combination. The team has retained players like Virat Kohli, Rajat Patidar, and Jitesh Sharma. Virat Kohli scored 657 runs in IPL 2025, including eight half-centuries. Captain Rajat Patidar, who led the team to their first title, scoring 312 runs in 15 matches, will remain as captain. RCB has a purse of ₹16.4 crore (approximately $1.64 billion) for the mini-auction. It will be interesting to see which players they choose to bid on in the auction.
RCB Retained These Bowlers
Regarding the bowling attack, the pair of Josh Hazlewood (22 wickets in 12 matches) and the experienced Bhuvneshwar Kumar (17 wickets in 14 matches) have been retained. They played a key role in the team’s title win. Other key match-winners have also been retained. Phil Salt provided an aggressive opening pair with Virat Kohli. Jitesh Sharma played a key role in the finish, scoring 261 runs in 15 matches. Players like Tim David and Krunal Pandya also played a key role in the victory.
Players retained by Royal Challengers Bangalore
Rajat Patidar, Mayank Agarwal, Swastik Chikara, Tim David, Virat Kohli, Phil Salt, Jitesh Sharma, Devdutt Padikkal, Mohit Rathi, Josh Hazlewood, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Blessing Muzarabani, Abhinandan Singh, Jacob Bethell, Krunal Pandya, Romario Shepherd, Suyash Sharma, Rasikh Salam, Swapnil Singh, Nuwan Thushara.
Players released by Royal Challengers Bangalore
Yash Dayal (India), Liam Livingstone (England), Tim Seifert (New Zealand), Swastik Chikara (India), Lungi Ngidi (South Africa), Manoj Bhandaage (India)