New Delhi: For years, Royal Challengers Bengaluru have been cast as Indian cricket’s perennial dreamers. They have always arrived with marquee talent, a massive following and unforgettable moments—yet the trophies refused to follow. The franchise reached the IPL final in 2009, 2011 and 2016, only to watch the title slip away each time. Over nearly two decades, supporters repeatedly saw squads built around superstar names such as Chris Gayle and Virat Kohli come close, only for the ultimate prize to remain elusive. In time, RCB’s story became shorthand for potential over progress, emotion over silverware.
That long wait—and the weight of the narrative—has now been overturned in a dramatic way. After securing the IPL 2026 crown in Ahmedabad on Sunday, RCB have delivered not just a title, but back-to-back championships. Their progress has been mirrored, too, by the women’s side, which laid down an early marker by winning the 2024 Women’s Premier League (WPL) title. Led by Smriti Mandhana, that team claimed its spot at the summit in February, giving the franchise a template for how sustained success can be built.
By May 31, the transformation looked complete: the same franchise that once carried the burden of repeated near-misses now sits at the top of both of India’s leading T20 competitions. Crucially, this change hasn’t happened by accident or by sudden luck. It has been systematic—an evolution in how RCB recruit, plan and execute. Where the “old” RCB often resembled a squad assembled around star power, the “new” version feels engineered. Recruitment decisions appear more calibrated, roles within the team are more clearly defined, and the reliance on one or two individual game-changers has been reduced. Results are no longer treated as something that will arrive purely through brilliance. Instead, success is shaped through squad depth, long-term thinking and continuity.
A shift seen across both teams
-
The WPL setup led the way first. In the early WPL seasons, many franchises were still figuring out how to construct squads and even how stable the competition’s rhythm would be. RCB, however, built a core steadily, backed their leadership and cultivated an environment where players could grow into their roles. When titles arrived, they came as a payoff for patience, not as the product of short-term gamble-and-grab methods.
-
The men’s team then followed a similar blueprint after Rajat Patidar took over the leadership role from Virat Kohli. With the franchise having already experienced the emotional surge of winning the IPL title in 2025, the danger of complacency was real. Defending a championship is usually tougher than capturing it in the first place, yet RCB returned in 2026 with a different look. They didn’t appear like a side trying to protect a crown; they looked like a team convinced it belonged at the very top.
That mindset—more than any single match-winning spell or innings—may be the dividing line between champions and dynasties. Football provides useful parallels. FC Barcelona’s standout era with both its men’s and women’s squads was not defined by one trophy cycle; it was sustained by a winning culture that consistently produced strong teams. More recently, Manchester City’s men’s and women’s units have become regular title contenders because the club’s philosophy runs across the organisation rather than being limited to one particular dressing room.
RCB’s rise now feels close to that model. For what may be the first time in the franchise’s history, there is a visible alignment between the men’s and women’s teams. Both groups appear to lean on shared principles: trust in long-range planning, strong leadership structures and an emphasis on balance over glamour. For most of their existence, RCB have lived under the shadow of their own script. Each season carried reminders of heartbreaks, near misses and the sense of unrealised potential. Rivalry banter turned into a punchline; loyalty was tested season after season.
Now, those conversations are changing. A new generation of fans is growing up with a different reference point—RCB as regular winners rather than perpetual underachievers. The franchise identity is being rewritten in real time. The memories that once revolved around “what could have been” are gradually making way for celebrations rooted in achievement.
From being cricket’s “nearly-men” to becoming a benchmark for Indian franchise cricket, RCB have completed one of the most significant transformations of the IPL era. With trophies arriving from both their men’s and women’s teams, the franchise is no longer in pursuit of history. It is creating it.
