To have Chris Gayle on one’s side for a T20 tournament is like a blessing for any team. Royal Challengers Bangalore has been the blessed side in the IPL for precisely the same reason. Chris Gayle has even played for Kolkata Knight Riders, though that particular season was quite off colour for him. However, in the last couple of seasons of the Indian Premier League, Chris Gayle has shown why he is called as the most dreaded batsman in this format of the game. It is no wonder that Royal Challengers Bangalore, the IPL team owned by liquor baron Vijay Mallya, has decided to retain Gayle for IPL 6 as well.
Besides Gayle, there are 5 more overseas players retained by Royal Challengers Bangalore. South African AB de Villiers, Sri Lankan spin legend Muttaih Muralitharan along with his Sri Lankan teammate Tilakaratne Dilshan; Andrew McDonald and Daniel Vettori has been retained. Those players who have been released by the Royal Challengers Bangalore team are Luke Pomersbach, Johan Botha, Owais Shah, Dinesh Chandimal, Paul Collingwood and Mohammad Kaif. Besides the 6 overseas players, there are 14 Indian players who have been chosen to be reserved for playing IPL 6 by RCBs.
The Indian players are Virat Kohli, Cheteshwar Pujara, Zaheer Khan, Abhimanyu Mithun, Saurabh Tiwary, Arun Karthik, Harshal Patel, KP Appanna, Karun Nair, Mayank Agarwal, R Vinay Kumar, J Syed Mohammed, Sreenath Aravind and Vijay Zol. Royal Challengers Bangalore have come close to IPL crowning glory two times when they ended up as runners up, first time denied by Deccan Chargers and second time by Chennai Super Kings. This time they will be looking to break the jinx and get to their maiden IPL title under the captaincy of Virat Kohli, who is touted to be Indian team’s next leader after MS Dhoni.
| Name | Role | Batting Style | Bowling Style | Notes |
| Cheteshwar Pujara | Batsman | Right-handed | Right-arm leg break | |
| Mayank Agarwal | Batsman | Right-handed | – | |
| Virat Kohli | Batsman | Right-handed | Right-arm medium | Captain |
| Saurabh Tiwary | Batsman | Left-handed | Right-arm off break | |
| Sunny Sohal | Batsman | Right-handed | Right-arm leg break | |
| Abhinav Mukund | Batsman | Left-handed | Right-arm leg break | |
| Chris Gayle | Batsman | Left-handed | Right-arm off break | Overseas |
| Karun Nair | Batsman | Right-handed | Right-arm off break | |
| Vijay Zol | Batsman | Left-handed | Right-arm off break | |
| Andrew McDonald | All Rounder | Right-handed | Right-arm medium-fast | Overseas |
| Daniel Vettori | All Rounder | Left-handed | Slow left arm orthodox | Overseas |
| Tillakaratne Dilshan | All Rounder | Right-handed | Right-arm off break | Overseas |
| Moisés Henriques | All Rounder | Right-handed | Right-arm medium-fast | Overseas |
| Daniel Christian | All Rounder | Right-handed | Right-arm medium-fast | Overseas |
| Christopher Barnwell | All Rounder | Right-handed | Right-arm medium-fast | Overseas |
| Arun Karthik | Wicket Keeper | Right-handed | Right-arm leg break | |
| AB de Villiers | Wicket Keeper | Right-handed | Right-arm medium | Overseas |
| Sheldon Jackson | Wicket Keeper | Right-handed | Right-arm leg break | |
| Harshal Patel | Bolwer | Right-handed | Right-arm medium-fast | |
| KP Appanna | Bolwer | Right-handed | Slow left arm orthodox | |
| Vinay Kumar | Bolwer | Right-handed | Right-arm medium-fast | |
| Syed Mohammed | Bolwer | Left-handed | Slow left arm orthodox | |
| Prasanth Parameswaran | Bolwer | Left-handed | Left-arm medium-fast | |
| Abhimanyu Mithun | Bolwer | Right-handed | Right arm medium-fast | |
| Zaheer Khan | Bolwer | Right-handed | Left-arm fast-medium | |
| Sreenath Aravind | Bolwer | Left-handed | Left-arm medium-fast | |
| Muttiah Muralitharan | Bolwer | Right-handed | Right-arm off break | Overseas |
| Sandeep Warrier | Bolwer | Right-handed | Right-arm fast-medium | |
| Jaydev Unadkat | Bolwer | Right-handed | Left-arm fast-medium | |
| Pankaj Singh | Bolwer | Right-handed | Right-arm fast-medium | |
| RP Singh | Bolwer | Right-handed | Left-arm fast-medium | |
| Ravi Rampaul | Bolwer | Left-handed | Right-arm fast-medium | Overseas |