Royal Challengers Bengaluru won its first IPL title in 2025. Image Credit X/RCBTweets
Following the completion of the T20 World Cup 2026, where India were crowned champions for a historic third time, the cricket world will be turning its heads to the Indian Premier League (IPL). The BCCI is set to release the schedule for the upcoming IPL 2026 season on the 12th of March. Reports suggest that the defending champions, Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB), will host the Chennai Super Kings (CSK).
The opening clash will reportedly be played at the Chinnaswamy Stadium. It was confirmed earlier that the upcoming season would begin on the 28th March 2026 after being postponed by two days. Last year’s runner-up, the Punjab Kings, will be kicking off their campaign at Mullanpur against the Gujarat Titans on the 29th of March.
It has generally been the trend that the previous season’s finalists play in the opening clash of the season. This year, the trend has been broken with the champion team, RCB, taking on CSK, who finished at the bottom of the points table. Both teams have had contrasting performances at the auction as well.
While the defending champions went to the auctions with a settled core group of players, the five-time champions and crowd favourite, CSK, went for a complete revamp at the auction. A look at their squad will give a complete picture of how the teams shape up ahead of the 19th season of the Indian Premier League.
Virat Kohli, Rajat Patidar, Josh Hazlewood, Phil Salt, Jitesh Sharma, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Venkatesh Iyer, Rasikh Salam, Krunal Pandya, Mangesh Yadav, Yash Dayal, Tim David, Suyash Sharma, Jacob Bethell, Devdutt Padikkal, Jacob Duffy, Nuwan Thushara, Romario Shepherd, Jordan Cox, Swapnil Singh, Satvik Deswal, Kanishk Chouhan, Abhinandan Singh, Vihaan Malhotra, Vicky Ostwal
Sanju Samson, Ruturaj Gaikwad, MS Dhoni, Shivam Dube, Noor Ahmad, Rahul Chahar, Khaleel Ahmed, Anshul Kamboj, Kartik Sharma, Prashant Veer, Dewald Brevis, Nathan Ellis, Gurjapneet Singh, Akeal Hosein, Matt Henry, Matthew Short, Jamie Overton, Sarfaraz Khan, Zak Foulkes, Aman Khan, Shreyas Gopal, Ayush Mhatre, Ramakrishna Ghosh, Urvil Patel, Mukesh Choudhary
RCB had been among the controversies since winning their first IPL title in 2025. The stampede caused during the trophy celebrations near the Chinnaswamy Stadium turned fatal, claiming 11 lives. There were reports that the defending champions would not be playing a single game in front of the passionate crowd. However, these reports were later quashed when Chinnaswamy Stadium was announced as RCB’s home stadium. The Rajat Patidar-led side might be playing a couple of home games in Raipur as well.
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