12th season in IPL
The 2019 season was the 12th season for the IPL cricket franchise Royal Challengers Bangalore. They were one of the eight teams that competed in the tournament. RCB continued under Kohli's captaincy and finished the season with five wins from 14 matches and 11 points.
Background.
Player retention, transfers and auction.
In November 2018, the Royal Challengers announced their list of retained players for the 2019 season. The list included Virat Kohli, AB de Villiers, Parthiv Patel, Yuzvendra Chahal, Washington Sundar, Pawan Negi, Nathan Coulter-Nile, Moeen Ali, Mohammed Siraj, Colin de Grandhomme, Tim Southee, Umesh Yadav, Navdeep Saini, Kulwant Khejroliya and Marcus Stoinis.
On 18 December 2018, the IPL player auction was held in which the Royal Challengers signed up nine more players viz., Shivam Dube, Shimron Hetmyer, Akshdeep Nath, Prayas Barman, Himmat Singh, Gurkeerat Singh Mann, Heinrich Klaasen, Devdutt Padikkal and Milind Kumar. Their squad strength was 24 with 16 Indian and 8 overseas players.
Team analysis.
"ESPNcricinfo" editor Varun Shetty wrote in his team preview that the Royal Challengers "might struggle once more with their balance" despite the presence of several all-rounders in the squad and predicted that the team would make it to the playoffs if Kohli has "another season of big runs". According to "the Indian Express", the team's strength is its batting lineup while the unavailability of overseas all-rounders for the entire season could be the weakness. The preview also stated that Kohli, whose captaincy was recently criticized by former cricketers, "will be eager to prove them wrong". "The Times of India" remarked that "Bowling, especially in the death overs, continues to be a cause for worry for RCB." "News18" tipped Shimron Hetmyer as one of the five first-time overseas players to watch out for in the season, while "the Hindu" named Shivam Dube among the uncapped Indian players "who could create ripples" at the tournament.
Coaching and support staff.
Ref
Season.
League table.
 ;templatestyles src="Refbegin/styles.css" / ;The four top ranked teams qualify for the playoffs
Results.
"The Royal Challengers made 143 runs in the last 10 overs while batting, the most by any team in an IPL match."
References.
 ;templatestyles src="Reflist/styles.css" / ;