Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) will face Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) in the first match. Indian Premier League (IPL) 2026.
RCB come into the season as defending champions, having won their much-awaited first title in 2025. They will be looking to maintain last season's formula, carrying on from the previous edition. Sunrisers come in with hopes of improving on their sixth-place performance last season. Both teams will be without their star Australian fast bowlers, with Josh Hazlewood and Pat Cummins not yet cleared to play.
toss update
After RCB captain Rajat Patidar won the toss and decided to field first, he talked about the pressure of the “defending champions” tag and the injuries in the team. Ishan Kishan, who is standing in for Pat Cummins as captain, wanted to field first, and is confident that his team will support his instincts.
Josh Hazlewood misses out, Jacob Duffy will play
Hazlewood last played cricket in November and missed the Ashes and T20 World Cup due to ankle, calf and Achilles problems. He has joined the team but has not yet been cleared to play. In his absence, New Zealand's Jacob Duffy is to make his debut. An exciting batsman of the domestic circuit, Salil Arora, is a new face in the Sunrisers Hyderabad team.
What did the captains say?
Rajat Patidar (RCB)
It's early in the season, so let's see how the wicket behaves. There are a lot of positives from last season. We are not defending anything, we will win in IPL 2026 also. [Injuries] There are many good players in the team and the backup players are also excellent. All the players are fit and the medical staff is taking care of the players. [Message to fans] Thank you very much for your support. We will try to win it again. There are two news faces, Jacob and Abhinandan playing.
Ishan Kishan (SRH)
Feeling good and we also wanted to field first. We want to support our trend. [How to go about the season?] You don't have to start something new just because it's IPL. We just want to implement our plans. Obviously Pat is one of the best bowlers, but everyone seems to be in good form and I think we will be on the winning side. [New faces] Salil [Arora] There is, and I just want him to keep things simple and trust his gut.
playing 11s
Royal Challengers Bangalore
Virat Kohli, Philip Salt, Rajat Patidar (captain), Jitesh Sharma (wicketkeeper), Tim David, Romario Shepherd, Krunal Pandya, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Abhinandan Singh, Jacob Duffy, Suyyash Sharma
Influential players: Devdutt Padikkal, Jacob Bethel, Rasikh Dar, Kanishk Chauhan, Venkatesh Iyer
Sunrisers Hyderabad
Abhishek Sharma, Travis Head, Ishan Kishan (C/W), Heinrich Klaasen, Aniket Verma, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Salil Arora, Harsh Dubey, Harshal Patel, Jaydev Unadkat, Ishan Malinga
Influential players: Shivang Kumar, Liam Livingstone, David Payne, Smaran Ravichandran, Saqib Hussain
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