South African left-arm seamer Wayne Parnell has quietly built a reputation as one of the IPL’s most consistent death-over operators, and his 2023 return with Royal Challengers Bengaluru underlined why franchises keep calling him back. Across five seasons from 2011 to 2023, Parnell has sent down 723 balls, struck 35 times and conceded only 937 runs—numbers that translate to a tight economy of 7.78 and a strike-rate of 20.66. While his four three-wicket hauls show the ability to break partnerships, the absence of a five-for highlights a career of disciplined containment rather than headline-grabbing bursts. With the bat he is a lower-order cameo merchant: 65 runs in 80 balls, four boundaries and a solitary six, but his highest score of 16 shows his brief stay at the crease is usually spent rotating the strike or finding the fence once before departing. After stints with Pune Warriors and Delhi Capitals, the 2023 RCB chapter saw the 33-year-old prove again that experience and left-arm angle make him an asset on Indian pitches.

Virat Kohli is the undisputed batting king of the Indian Premier League, a Royal Challengers Bengaluru lifer who has turned loyalty into legend across 18 electrifying seasons from 2008 to 2025. With 8,661 runs off 6,519 balls, Kohli is the league’s highest-ever run-getter, firing at a strike rate of 132 and painting every corner of every ground with 771 fours and 291 towering sixes. His 63 half-centuries and 8 hundreds—topped by a blistering 113*—tell the story of a man who converts starts into statements, walking in 259 innings and delivering a match-defining fifty or hundred in roughly one out of every four trips to the crease. While he has rolled his arm over occasionally, claiming four wickets from 26 bowling innings, it is with the bat that Kohli has authored the IPL’s most enduring chronicle, forever clad in the red and gold of RCB.

Note: This overview is partially generated using AI and is based on statistical data. Please verify with official sources for complete accuracy.