IPL: It’s going to be Royal Challengers Bengaluru from now on

A change to a team’s name is not exactly uncommon in IPL history — both the Delhi Capitals and the Punjab Kings have walked that path before in search of luck.

The Royal Challengers Bangalore followed suit on Tuesday night, 19 March, they were rechristened the ‘Royal Challengers Bengaluru’.

'The City we love, the Heritage we embrace... PRESENTING TO YOU, ROYAL CHALLENGERS BENGALURU, RCB!,' the franchise posted on X (formerly Twitter).

In a glitzy RCB Unbox event at their home base of M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru, the new name of the franchise was unveiled along with its new logo.

Earlier, in an endearing gesture, members of the RCB men’s team gave the Smriti Mandhana-led Women's Premier League (WPL 2024) champions a guard of honour to roaring applause from the fans.

Faf du Plessis, Virat Kohli, Reece Topley, Mohammed Siraj, Cameron Green, Glenn Maxwell, Dinesh Karthik and Karn Sharma gave the women a guard of honour for running the gauntlet and holding aloft the prized trophy in their very second season.

R. Vinay Kumar, former India pacer and the third-highest wicket taker for RCB, was inducted into the RCB Hall of Fame the same day, joining batting legends A.B. de Villiers and Chris Gayle.

Kohli, who joined the team’s practice the day before, and du Plessis launched the new jersey for the 2024 season along with Mandhana.

On this extraordinary evening, fans were also treated to some entertainment beyond sports — with music from renowned DJ Alan Walker along with other popular stars such as Raghu Dixit, Neeti Mohan, Brodha V. and Jordindian, among many others.

The RCB, still looking for their elusive first IPL trophy, are scheduled to kickstart their campaign on Friday, 22 March, in the 2024 IPL opener — with a challenging encounter against Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s Chennai Super Kings, on their home turf in Chennai.

The Challengers return to Bengaluru to play their first home game of the League on 25 March.