IPL 2018: 5 players that Royal Challengers Bangalore are missing this season
The Royal Challengers Bangalore's IPL journey over the course of 10 years has been a pretty interesting one. Despite having a star-studded squad every year, the Men in Red continue to hunt for their maiden IPL title.
The Bangalore franchise has made it to the playoffs 5 times (2009, 2010, 2011, 2015 and 2016) and to the final twice (2009 and 2011) but has never gone one step further to clinch the title.
One reason for this prolonged title hunt has been the loss of some key players. The RCB had a handful of talented youngsters as well as overseas stars that were worth investing in. However, after results did not go their way, the franchise decided to swing the axe and let go of some of these big names.
Here are five players that the RCB will rue letting go.
#5 Chris Gayle
The 'Universe Boss' was a part of the Royal Challengers Bangalore squad from 2011 to 2017 editions of the IPL. For the RCB, Chris Gayle has been the biggest entertainer and a proven match-winner. He has scored 3000+ runs at a strike rate of more than 150.
Over the years, the ' Gaylestorm' has hit the Chinnaswamy Stadium and has blown away many oppositions and has mercilessly destroyed them. Surprisingly, the T20 cricket king was not retained by RCB ahead of the 2018 IPL auction.
It was a pretty poor move to leave out world's best T20 batsman and this is something they will regret now. Despite a couple of off-seasons in the IPL, he is still doing pretty good in T20 leagues across the world. Only time will tell whether the RCB have made the right choice by letting Gayle go, but at the moment it does not seem so.