IPL 2026, RCB vs SRH 1st Match Match Preview – RCB, SRH and Chinnaswamy come together for IPL’s opening night

Big Picture: High-scoring game on the cards

Sometimes, because of storied rivalries in the IPL, such as Royal Challengers Bengaluru vs Chennai Super Kings or RCB vs Mumbai Indians, other contests often take a backseat. At the outset, RCB vs Sunrisers Hyderabad feels like just another game in the IPL, but these two teams have, over the years, dished out some high-scoring stunners. Think back to the 287 vs 262 game in 2024, or when RCB smoked 206 later that season or when SRH hammered 231 for 6 in Lucknow last season; big runs have defined RCB-SRH games in the recent past.When these two teams face off in the opening game of IPL 2026 at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium, expect another high-scoring affair, particularly with both sides light on bowling. Defending champions RCB are starting the season without Josh Hazlewood, their star seamer from IPL 2025, who only arrived in Bengaluru on Thursday night and will sit out the initial part of this season. Yash Dayal is also out for the season, leaving RCB with only Bhuvneshwar Kumar as their seasoned quick.Jacob Duffy could make his IPL debut in place of Hazlewood but this is his first stint in the league. Among the Indian fast bowlers, RCB have 23-year-old left-arm quick Mangesh Yadav, who is also yet to make his IPL debut and Rasikh Salam, who is also inexperienced. How they go against sixy SRH could shape the contest.

At the other end, SRH also don’t have quality fast bowlers in the mix. Jaydev Unadkat is likely to lead the SRH attack alongside Harshal Patel, with Brydon Carse and Eshan Malinga around. Unadkat had a decent Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy, claiming 12 wickets in seven games, but Harshal struggled for Gujarat, managing eight wickets and going at an economy of 9.69. The RCB batters, particularly Virat Kohli and Phil Salt, looked in stellar form in the nets and after the high of 2025, will want to cash in on what is expected to be another belter of a pitch at the Chinnaswamy, which both head coaches, Andy Flower and Daniel Vettori, seemed to agree upon.

This is the first time top-flight cricket is returning to the Chinnaswamy since May 17, 2025. It is going to be an emotional return after cricket came to a halt at the venue after a stampede around the stadium during RCB’s title celebrations on June 4 led to the deaths of 11 people. A lot of changes have since gone into the stadium. The RCB players will also be wearing black armbands as a mark of respect for the people who lost their lives last season.

Key question

Jacob Bethell comes into IPL 2026 on the back of a spectacular century against India during the T20 World Cup at the Wankhede Stadium. Though RCB have some proven overseas performers, it will be hard for them to ignore Bethell’s skills.

Team news & likely XIIs

While the RCB top five looks fairly settled, their overseas combination is a head-scratcher. Salt looks a certain starter and so does Romario Shepherd. Bethell batted and bowled a lot over the last two days. He also had an extended fielding drill on the eve of the game and it appears he might start. Tim David was one of the stars for RCB last season, but he hasn’t batted much in the last couple of days. Will RCB risk starting without David? The other player to look out for is Krunal Pandya, who has barely been seen much in RCB practice sessions.

RCB: 1 Virat Kohli, 2 Phil Salt, 3 Devdutt Padikkal, 4 Rajat Patidar (capt), 5 Jitesh Sharma (wk), 6 Jacob Bethell/Tim David, 7 Romario Shepherd, 8 Krunal Pandya, 9 Bhuvneshwar Kumar, 10 Suyash Sharma, 11 Jacob Duffy, 12 Rasikh Salam

Virat Kohli gears up for IPL 2026•PTI

SRH head coach Vettori confirmed that Heinrich Klaasen will bat at No. 4, which means that SRH’s top four will be Ishan Kishan, Abhishek, Head and Klaasen. The highly-rated Salil Arora could make his IPL debut, while Aniket Verma and Harsh Dubey also look set to play. The only toss-up in the SRH side could be between Eshan Malinga and Liam Livingstone. While Livingstone didn’t bat much in the nets on the eve of the game, he had a long session the previous day. Malinga bowled on both days.

SRH: 1 Ishan Kishan (capt, wk), 2 Abhishek Sharma, 3 Travis Head, 4 Heinrich Klaasen, 5 Nitish Kumar Reddy, 6 Liam Livingstone/Eshan Malinga, 7 Salil Arora, 8 Aniket Verma, 9 Harsh Dubey, 10 Brydon Carse, 11 Harshal Patel, 12 Jaydev Unadkat

In the spotlight – Abhishek Sharma and Phil Salt

In two years, Phil Salt has been an IPL winner twice over – with Kolkata Knight Riders in 2024 and RCB in 2025. He played starring roles in both victories: was KKR’s second-highest scorer (435 in 12 games) in 2024 and RCB’s second-highest scorer in 2025 (403 in 13 games). Salt hasn’t been in great form coming into the season, managing just 130 runs in eight innings at 16.25 at the T20 World Cup, but he has the backing of the team management, as Mo Bobat pointed out in the pre-tournament press conference.Abhishek Sharma is back in his natural habitat, with a team that has turned his career around. He had a tough time at the T20 World Cup, with his half-century in the final the only saving grace. But at SRH, Abhishek is in a comfortable space along with Travis Head at the top. Travishek, as they are popularly known, had aggregated 511 runs in 12 innings last season, following up from a monstrous 2024 season, where Abhishek was a key figure in SRH’s run to the final. No other SRH batter in the last four seasons has played more games or scored more runs than Abhishek’s 1575 and with familiar faces around him, he will want to have another solid IPL season.

Stats and Trivia

• Since IPL 2024, SRH have the second-highest batting powerplay scoring rate: 10.54, marginally behind KKR’s 10.55. RCB are not far behind on 9.83.
• The average first-innings score in completed T20Is at the Chinnaswamy over the last three seasons is 194.
• Kohli needs 29 runs to go past Shoaib Malik in the overall T20 run-scorer tally. He will go sixth on the list when he manages to do that
• Bhuvneshwar Kumar needs just two wickets to reach the 200 mark in the IPL. He is already second on the all-time wicket-taker’s list in the tournament.

Pitch and conditions

The opening game of the IPL 2026 will be played on the centre pitch. This is historically a high-scoring venue, but with no cricket being played here in close to ten months, both teams might be wary of how the surface behaves. It has been unusually hot in Bengaluru over the last couple of weeks and the temperature is likely to hover around the mid to high 20 degree range. Flower said that he didn’t expect a lot of dew to feature in the evening games.

Next three fixtures

RCB
vs Chennai Super Kings – April 5
vs Rajasthan Royals – April 10
vs Mumbai Indians – April 12

SRH
vs Kolkata Knight Riders – April 2
vs Lucknow Super Giants – April 5
vs Punjab Kings – April 11

Quotes

“I was watching him do shuttles the other day, he looks light on his feet, very fit, very lean, very hungry. He’s always been very hungry and determined and I think that mental and emotional space that he’s in, where he’s very comfortable with himself as a person, but he’s also very hungry to drive himself as a professional sportsperson.”
Andy Flower feels Virat Kohli is looking as good as ever

“The leadership that he exuded throughout that first season, particularly in the back half when he took over the wicketkeeping really brought energy to the group and set up our back half of the year and we were pretty successful in that period. So when Patty [Pat Cummins] was unfortunately out of the initial stage of the tournament, we obviously had some decisions to make and his experience with his state team in particular had been so impressive and then obviously he was in really good form. So between Abhishek and himself, we feel like we’ve got a really good leadership group to lead us this year.
Daniel Vettori on Ishan Kishan’s captaincy skills

Ashish Pant is a sub-editor with ESPNcricinfo