Virat Kohli and RCB begin their title defence on Saturday in the season opener against SRH, at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru. He is the leading all-time run-scorer in the tournament’s history with 8661 runs in 267 matches.
Ahead of the IPL 2026 season, RCB head coach Andy Flower reflected on the veteran batter’s form and expressed confidence in his mindset. Kohli holds the official records for most runs scored in a single season (973 runs in 2016) and most career IPL tons (8).
“Virat is in a really good space mentally. He’s very comfortable with himself but still incredibly hungry and watching him strike the ball in training, he looks at the peak of his powers,” he said.
Andy Flower on Rajat Patidar’s captaincy
Kohli is also no longer the RCB skipper, having stepped down in 2021. Since then, Faf du Plessis has taken over the role and now it’s Rajat Patidar, who led them to their maiden IPL title last season. Meanwhile, Jitesh Sharma is his deputy.
“It’s pretty amazing that in Rajat’s first year of captaincy he led RCB to the trophy. He’s a very likeable man and he’s well respected in the dressing room. He stays nice and calm, which the bowlers really appreciate. Jitesh is a very good deputy as well. He’s energetic, tactically aware and sees a lot of the game from behind the stumps, so having those two working together around the square is valuable for the team.” he said.
Analysing the team’s performances at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium, Flower claimed, “We lost our first three matches at Chinnaswamy last year and we learned from those experiences. Conditions might be slightly different this time as well, so we’ll have to assess that. But at your home venue you should have a better understanding of the nuances of the conditions than your opposition. We’ve been practicing here and talking a lot about those aspects, so I’d like to think we’ll be slightly ahead of the opposition on our own surface.”
