3 Players you probably didn't know played for Royal Challengers Bangalore
The Indian Premier League has been home to the greatest cricketers of the modern era over the last decade. These megastars have added to the fierce nature of the competition with their will to win at all costs. The IPL has also tested their character in crunch situations - an ability you need to possess to succeed in T20 cricket.
Alongside the brand of cricket that has witnessed exponential growth, the fraternity has also observed an upsurge in quality with regards to the domestic talent coming through.
An combination of this battle between the great players and the starlets accompanying them adds the beauty of the widely celebrated league.
A host of these world-class players have donned the royal red of Bangalore over the years. It's baffling as to how a team replete with some of the biggest names in world cricket has failed to land a single trophy. RCB have a history of releasing players at the wrong time or illustrating impatience with their team composition within and between seasons.
On that note, we remind you of three conspicuous talents who you may not know played for RCB.
#3 Nathan Bracken
One of the unsung heroes of an otherwise star-studded, immortal Australian setup of the 2000s was Nathan Bracken.
The left-arm pacer, who set the field ablaze with his seam-up deliveries from a tormenting angle in the 2007 World Cup, was snapped up by RCB ahead of the inaugural season.
Bracken, who took an impressive 174 wickets in 116 ODIs, was adept at maintaining a picturesque seam and moving the ball both ways. It's a shame the tall fast bowler didn't manage to showcase his potential in front of the boisterous Indian crowd.
He was a part of RCB for the first couple of seasons but remained behind the likes of Dale Steyn, Jacques Kallis and Praveen Kumar in the pecking order.
#2 Karun Nair
Karun Nair's performances in first-class cricket for Karnataka couldn't have gone unrecognised for too long, as he earned an opporunity to showcase his talent in the IPL early on in 2012.
The stylish middle-order batsman was scouted by his local side, but couldn't make a case for himself in his first season. He would go on to make his debut and play another game the next season besides mainly warming the benches. Nine runs in two matches closed his RCB career.
Rajasthan Royals, home to many a budding talent in the league, purchased Nair the following season. He made an instant impact, scoring 330 runs in just 11 matches at a blistering strike-rate of 142.24. He then plied his trade with Delhi, before joining Kings XI Punjab in 2018.
Nair scored just over 300 runs that season, but was confined to the sidelines in the 2019 edition amidst reshuffling of the playing XI more often than not. All in all, the 28-year-old has 1464 runs from 64 matches in the league.
#1 Steve Smith
Yes, you read that right. A stout leg spinner who could give it a rattle towards the back-end of an innings, Steve Smith was a part of the RCB dressing room with the likes of Dale Steyn, Eoin Morgan, Kevin Pietersen and Ross Taylor.
His progression since then has been stunning. Smith has emerged as one of the greatest batsmen of the present era, scoring over 11,000 runs for Australia at staggering rates with brilliant consistency.
Smith was traded during the 2010 season but failed to get a game. He was then bought by the now-defunct Pune Warriors India but later found his home at the Rajasthan Royals. Now the skipper of RR, Smith is tasked with turning the fortunes of the inaugral champions of the after a series of underwhelming campaigns.
Smith has 2022 runs in IPL cricket in 81 games, at an average 37.44 and a scoring rate of 128.95.
Smith scores in his own unique ways, finding corridors of gaps through the most startling of strokes. He is not just a mastermind or a live wire, but also an anchor that every T20 side requires in their batting line-up.
To think of him sandwiched between Virat Kohli and AB de Villiers in today's RCB batting order is nothing short of frightening. It would certainly have gone down as one of the most exciting batting lineups in IPL history.