RR vs RCB: Rajasthan Royals take on Royal Challengers Bengaluru in the IPL 2026 fixture on Friday in Guwahati. Both RR and RCB have been in brilliant touch. While the Royals have won all their three matches, RCB have won both their games in the competition so far. The eyes would now be on some of the key players from both the ends.
Vaibhav Sooryavanshi and Yashasvi Jaiswal have chipped in with some aggressive knocks, Virat Kohli and Devdutt Padikkal have been in some brilliant form while Tim David showed his class with the bat after he struck 70* off 25 in the previous game.
Here we take a look at the key battles in this RR vs RCB contest.
RR vs RCB: Bhuvneshwar Kumar vs Vaibhav Sooryavanshi
A lot of chatter went around ahead of the clash between Rajasthan Royals and Mumbai Indians as Vaibhav Sooryavanshi was slated to face Jasprit Bumrah. The youngster didn’t waste much time to show his calibre as he hammered the pacer for a couple of maximums.
Cut to the contest between Rajasthan Royals and Royal Challengers Bengaluru. Sooryavanshi will be up against Bhuvneshwar Kumar. Bhuvi isn’t just know for his knack of picking wickets but has a brilliant economy rate of 7.70 in IPL. In the previous meeting in the Indian Premier League, Vaibhav hit Bhuvi for two sixes before the medium pacer cleaned him up on the next delivery to eventually win that battle.
The battle between the young sensation and the experienced campaigner is surely the one to watch out for.
RR vs RCB: Virat Kohli vs Rajasthan Royals Bowling Attack
Ravi Bishnoi has done well in containing Virat Kohli and Phil Salt, and has also troubled Tim David in the past.
Expect the leg-spinner to be used early in the Powerplay if the openers settle, and later in the innings to control the scoring during the death overs.
Virat Kohli has also faced issues against the left-arm pacers in the past. In 145 innings, he has been dismissed by the left-arm pacers 42 times and has scored 1373 runs at an average of 32.69. Another positive for Rajasthan Royals is that Sandeep Sharma has been pretty successful against Kohli.
The flamboyant batter has faced 88 balls against the medium pacer and has scored 132 runs. He has been dismissed 7 times and averages just 18.9.
RR vs RCB Predicted Playing XIs:
Rajasthan Royals: Yashasvi Jaiswal, Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, Dhruv Jurel (wk), Riyan Parag (C), Shimron Hetmyer (O), D Ferreira (O), Ravindra Jadeja, Jofra Archer (O), Nandre Burger (O), Sandeep Sharma, Ravi Bishnoi
Impact Player: Tushar Deshpande
Royal Challengers Bengaluru: Phil Salt (O), Virat Kohli, Devdutt Padikkal, Rajat Patidar (C), Tim David (O), Jitesh Sharma (wk), Romario Shepherd (O), Krunal Pandya, A Singh, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Jacob Duffy (O)
Impact Player: Suyash Sharma
Match Prediction: While Rajasthan Royals have won three matches and RCB two, the Bengaluru team has a slight edge and can win the match today.
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