The stage is set for the battle of the heavyweights in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2026 opener. Defending champions Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) are all ready to face Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) as competitive cricket finally returns to the M Chinnaswamy Stadium. The uber-popular venue in Bengaluru hasn’t witnessed any sort of cricket game after the stampede last year, where 11 people lost their lives during RCB’s victory celebrations. However, the Karnataka State Cricket Association (KSCA) put in the hard yards to get the sport back to the venue.
The contest will mark the return of Virat Kohli after the ODI series against New Zealand. The right-handed batter who has his eyes firmly set on the 2027 ODI World Cup, will look to set the tournament ablaze, and one needs to see whether he adopts the slam bang approach and matches the youngsters stroke for stroke.
Both RCB and SRH would be without their star pacers, Josh Hazlewood and Pat Cummins, as the Australian speedsters are yet to recover from their injuries. The duo have arrived in India and joined the respective squads; however, it will take some time for them to regain full fitness and play the IPL 2026 games.
It would be interesting to see how Cummins and Hazlewood are replaced in the SRH and RCB playing XIs. As of now, it seems that Brydon Carse and Jacob Duffy would be the frontrunners to lead the pace attack in their absence. Nuwan Thushara would have gotten a look-in had he been fit; however, he is set to be denied a NOC by Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC), and hence, RCB don’t have any other option but to look at Duffy despite his recent horrendous form for New Zealand.
Jacob Bethell misses out
Despite scoring a century in the T20 World Cup semi-final against India, England batter Jacob Bethell is all set to miss out for RCB in the opening match as Phil Salt is likely to open the batting alongside Kohli. Tim David and Romario Shephard are likely to form a crucial cog in the middle order.
On the other hand, SRH would be led by Ishan Kishan in the absence of Cummins’. Liam Livingstone is set to lineup in the middle order, and he, along with Heinrich Klaasen, would look to demolish the RCB bowling attack.
The contest at the Chinnaswamy Stadium promises to be a run fest and it would be interesting to see which bowling group manages to hold it together.
Here are the predicted XIs:
RCB: Virat Kohli, Phil Salt, Devdutt Padikkal, Rajat Patidar (captain), Tim David, Jitesh Sharma, Krunal Pandya, Romario Shepherd, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Suyash Sharma, Jacob Duffy.
SRH: Travis Head, Abhishek Sharma, Ishan Kishan (captain), Liam Livingstone, Heinrich Klaasen, Aniket Verma, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Brydon Carse, Jaydev Unadkat, Harshal Patel, Zeeshan Ansari.
