Royal Challengers Bengaluru will lock horns with Sunrisers Hyderabad in Bengaluru in the IPL 2026 opener on Saturday. RCB will go into the tournament as the defending champions after they defeated Punjab Kings in the finale last year. The hosts suffered a blow after pacer Josh Hazlewood was officially ruled out of the first match against the Sunrisers.
SRH on the other side, will be without the services of their regular skipper Pat Cummins who is still recovering from a back injury. Ishan Kishan will lead the side in his absence while Abhishek Sharma will be his deputy for the initial phase of the tournament.
RCB head coach also spoke about the availability of Indian pacers in the squad this year and praised the young Indian seamers trio of Abhinandan Singh, Rasikh Dar Salam and Mangesh Yadav.
Speaking about the Indian pacers, the head coach said, “Yash (Dayal) is not with us this year, unfortunately. So we have
Mangesh, Abhinandan, and Rasikh all competing for a place. I’m not going to tell you now who’s playing tomorrow, but we’re happy with recruiting Mangesh, a left-arm seamer, to replace Yash Dayal.”
The onus will be on Mangesh as he was bought for Rs 5.20 crore at the mini auction last year.
Here’s a Look at Probable Playing XI
RCB: Phil Salt (O), Virat Kohli, Devdutt Padikkal, Rajat Patidar (C), Jitesh Sharma (wk), Tim David (O), Venkatesh Iyer, Krunal Pandya, Mangesh Yadav, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Jacob Duffy (O)
Impact Player: Suyash Sharma
SRH: Travis Head (O), Abhishek Sharma, Henrich Klaasen (O), Ishan Kishan (C), Aniket Verma, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Liam Livingstone (O), Harshal Patel, Jaydev Unadkat, Brydon Carse (O), Shivam Mavi
Impact Player: Zeeshan Ansari
While the two sides are looking stable, RCB have a slight edge over SRH in this contest. Kohli has been looking in brilliant touch while they have a bit of firepower in the middle and lower middle-order that can make the diiference in the closing stage of the game.
Also Read: Will Virat Kohli Win Orange Cap in IPL 2026? RCB Head Coach Puts Weight Behind Star Batter
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