It was a grand unboxing event for Royal Challengers Bangalore as they rebranded to Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) on Tuesday (Mar 19) at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium. The event was graced by the presence of current stars of RCB men’s and women’s teams, including former skipper Virat Kohli. One of the greats of the game, Virat addressed the local crowd in the Kannada language as he prepares for his 17th consecutive season with the South Indian giants.
Virat speaks Kannada
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Virat alongside captain Faf du Plessis during the show stole the hearts with a sentence in Kannada, saying, “Idu RCB’ya Hosa Adhyaya (This is the new chapter of RCB).”
The crowd was ecstatic following Virat’s address while few were left stunned by his Kannada accent. The event was a special occasion for multiple reasons as RCB won their first trophy on Sunday when their women’s team beat Delhi Capitals in the final of the Women’s Premier League (WPL). The RCB women’s team was given a standing ovation by the crowd.
The men’s team was also present at the event and gave a guard of honour to the women’s team for their remarkable achievement in WPL. Winning captain Smriti Mandhana then led her squad in a victory lap around the ground with the trophy in tow to rapturous cheers from a near-capacity crowd. The main highlight of the event was the change in brand name from Bangalore to Bengaluru.
During the event, RCB also inducted Karnataka legend and former player Vinay Kumar into the franchise’s Hall of Fame. Vinay played five seasons for RCB with his best season coming in 2013, where he claimed 23 wickets at 21.43.
RCB will start the IPL 2024 campaign on Friday when they take on Chennai Super Kings (CSK) in the curtain-raiser at the MA Chidambaram Stadium.
RCB’s full squad for IPL 2024
Faf du Plessis (C), Glenn Maxwell, Virat Kohli, Rajat Patidar, Anuj Rawat, Dinesh Karthik, Suyash Prabhudessai, Will Jacks, Mahipal Lomror, Karn Sharma, Manoj Bhandage, Mayank Dagar, Vijaykumar Vyshak, Akash Deep, Mohammed Siraj, Reece Topley, Himanshu Sharma, Rajan Kumar, Cameron Green, Alzarri Joseph, Yash Dayal, Tom Curran, Lockie Ferguson, Swapnil Singh, Saurav Chauhan.
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