Royal Challengers Bengaluru, formerly known as Royal Challengers Bangalore, commonly known as RCB, is an Indian professional franchise cricket team based in

Bengaluru Bengaluru, also known as Bangalore (List of renamed places in India#Karnataka, its official name until 1 November 2014), is the Capital city, capital and largest city of the southern States and union territories of India, Indian state of Kar ...

Karnataka Karnataka ( ) is a States and union territories of India, state in the southwestern region of India. It was Unification of Karnataka, formed as Mysore State on 1 November 1956, with the passage of the States Reorganisation Act, 1956, States Re ...

that competes in the Women's Premier League. It is owned by United Spirits, which also owns the men's team. The team is coached by Luke Williams and captained by

Smriti Mandhana Smriti Mandhana (born 18 July 1996) is an Indian international cricketer and the vice-captain of the India women's national cricket team, national team. She is third on the list of list of cricketers by number of international centuries scored#Wo ...

. RCB won the 2024 season, bringing the first trophy for the franchise. It is also the most popular and followed cricket franchise on

Instagram Instagram is an American photo sharing, photo and Short-form content, short-form video sharing social networking service owned by Meta Platforms. It allows users to upload media that can be edited with Social media camera filter, filters, be ...

with more than 21 million followers.

History

In October 2022, the

BCCI The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) is the principal national governing body of the sport of cricket in India. Its headquarters are situated at the Cricket Centre in Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai. BCCI is the wealthiest governing body ...

announced its intentions to hold a five-team women's franchise cricket tournament in March 2023. The tournament was named the Women's Premier League in January 2023, with investors buying the rights to franchises through a closed bidding process during the same month.

Diageo Diageo plc ( ) is a British Multinational corporation, multinational alcoholic beverage company, with its headquarters in London, England. It is a major distributor of Scotch whisky and other spirits and operates from 132 sites around the world ...

, the owners of

Royal Challengers Bangalore The Royal Challengers Bengaluru, formerly Royal Challengers Bangalore, also known as RCB, are a professional Twenty20, Twenty20 cricket team based in Bengaluru, Karnataka, that competes in the Indian Premier League (IPL). Founded in 2008 ...

in the

Indian Premier League The Indian Premier League (IPL) is a professional Twenty20 (T20) cricket league in India, organised by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI). Founded in 2007, it features ten city-based Professional sports league organization, fr ...

, bought the rights to one of the franchises. In February 2023,

Ben Sawyer Ben Sawyer (born 1978/79) is an Australian cricket coach, who is the current head coach of the New Zealand women's national cricket team. He has previous been head coach of Birmingham Phoenix women's team in The Hundred, Royal Challengers Ba ...

was announced as head coach of the side. The inaugural player auction for the WPL was held on 13 February 2023, Royal Challengers Bangalore signing 18 players for their squad. On 18 February 2023,

was announced as the team's captain. The side finished fourth in the group stage at the inaugural tournament. In September 2023, Luke Williams was announced as the head coach for the 2024 season. The side won three of their five Bangalore-leg matches, and then they went on to win one match out of their next three matches. Ending the league stage with four wins, the side qualified for the playoffs. In the

eliminator Eliminator may refer to: People and characters *The Eliminators (band), a band which covered " The Saint" from '' Surfbeat Behind the Iron Curtain, Volume 1'' *The Eliminators, a professional wrestling tag team that consisted of John Kronus and P ...

, the team defeated the defending champions —

Mumbai Indians The Mumbai Indians are a professional Twenty20, Twenty20 cricket team based in Mumbai, Maharashtra, that competes in the Indian Premier League (IPL). The Indians were founded in 2008 and are owned by India's largest Conglomerate (company), co ...

, to advance into the final. In the final, they defeated

Delhi Capitals The Delhi Capitals, formerly the Delhi Daredevils, also known as DC, are a professional Twenty20 cricket team based in Delhi that competes in the Indian Premier League (IPL). The franchise is owned by GMR Group and JSW Sports. Its home groun ...

to win the title, this was the franchise's maiden title across both men's and women's leagues. Royal Challengers Bangalore's

Ellyse Perry Ellyse Perry (born 3 November 1990) is an Australian cricketer and former soccer, soccer player. Having debuted for both the Australia women's national cricket team, national cricket and Australia women's national soccer team, national soccer t ...

and Shreyanka Patil won the orange cap and purple cap respectively.

Kit

The official colours of Royal Challengers Bengaluru are red, black and gold.

Performance record

*Sourc
CricInfo

Captaincy record

Coaching staff

Source
RCB

Awards and nominations

Women's Premier League

Others

References

{{Royal Challengers Bangalore (WPL) Royal Challengers Bengaluru Cricket clubs established in 2023 Women's Premier League (cricket) teams United Breweries Group Royal Challengers Bangalore (WPL)