cricket

Updated: Feb 12, 2020 16:36 IST

Royal Challengers Bangalore can have a name change ahead of the new season of the Indian Premier League (IPL) as they changed their name of their official Twitter handle on Wednesday. The account removed its display picture and cover picture while the name was changed to ‘Royal Challengers’. The same was done on their Instagram and Facebook accounts which hints at a possible announcement of a new name along with a new logo. According to some reports, RCB will replace ‘Bangalore’ in their team name with ‘Bengaluru’ on February 16.

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Virat Kohli’s record as the Royal Challengers Bangalore skipper might have been below-par but the team’s newly-appointed Director of Cricket Mike Hesson ruled out any change in leadership for the under-performing franchise in the next IPL edition.

Despite stars like Kohli, AB de Villiers and Chris Gayle (for better part), RCB has not won the IPL since the event’s inception. Kohli has led the team in seven of those seasons.

Hesson nipped questions on Kohli controlling the team and change in captaincy in the bud. “We don’t have that perception that Virat controls things. But may be he has had his learnings from the past (mistakes) while moving forward,” Hesson said during a media interaction.

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Hesson said Kohli has been on the same page as him and chief coach Simon Katich. “There has been no question mark over Virat’s captaincy during last couple of weeks (of discussions),” Hesson clarified.

A look at the Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) squad ahead of IPL 2020 -

Retained: Virat Kohli, Moeen Ali, Yuzvendra Chahal, AB de Villiers, Parthiv Patel, Mohammed Siraj, Pawan Negi, Umesh Yadav, Gurkeerat Mann, Devdutt Padikkal, Shivam Dube, Washington Sundar, Navdeep Saini

Bought (8): Aaron Finch (4.4 crore), Chris Morris (10 crore), Joshua Philippe (20 lakh), Kane Richardson(4 crore), Pavan Deshpande (20 lakh), Dale Steyn (2 crore), Shahbaz Ahamad (20 lakh), Isuru Udana (50 lakh)