Royal Challengers Bangalore is considered the chokers of Indian Premier League. They have played three IPL finals and lost all of them. They also have the dubious distinction of releasing star players who have gone on to become big hits for the next team they have joined.
Here’s a list of cricketers who were released by RCB and later turned up for a different franchise and became a star performer for them.
1) Chris Gayle
Gayle was the star performer for RCB from 2011 to 2017. He cracked a valiant 76 in the IPL 2016 final against SRH but in a losing cause. However, he had a poor season for RCB in 2017 IPL, managing just 200 runs @ 22.22 with 2 fifties in 9 matches, and he was not retained for the next season.
Gayle later said he was told RCB would buy him back in the auction. But it never happened. Kings XI Punjab bought Gayle at the last minute at his base price of Rs 2 crore in 2018 IPL auction.
Gayle never disappointed for Punjab and formed a formidable opening pair with KL Rahul. He scored 368 runs @ 40.88 in 11 matches in 2018 IPL and 490 runs @ 40.83 in 13 matches in 2019 IPL for Punjab. On the other hand, RCB is still struggling to get a consistent opener after the exit of Gayle.
2) Shane Watson
Similar to Gayle, Watson was also handed out the same treatment by RCB. After Watson suffered a poor form in the 2017 season, he was shown the door by RCB. Watson could manage just 71 runs @ 11.83 and 5 wickets in 8 games for RCB in 2017 IPL. He then joined CSK and turned around his fortunes, aggregating 555 runs @ 39.64 with 2 tons and 2 fifties in 15 games in 2018 IPL. He scored the title-winning 117* against SRH in the 2018 IPL final. He also scored 398 runs @ 23.41 runs with 3 fifties in 2019 IPL for CSK.
3) KL Rahul
KL Rahul was part of RCB squad in 2016 IPL where he scored 397 runs @ 44.11 with 4 fifties in 14 games. However, his good showing could not convince RCB to retain him after he missed the next season due to an injury. In 2018 IPL, he played for KXIP and opened and kept wickets for them.
He was their standout player in the two seasons, aggregating 659 runs @ 54.91 with 6 fifties in 14 games in 2018, and 593 runs @ 53.90 with 1 ton and 6 fifties in 14 games in 2019. He is set to lead KXIP in 2020 IPL.
Photo courtesy: IPLT20
