IPL 2026, DC vs RCB 39th Match Match Preview – Kohli meets DC, Rahul meets RCB as playoffs race heats up

Big picture: Can Rahul boss his favourite opponents again?

KL Rahul loves Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB). He made his IPL debut for them and had his breakout season with them when they made the final in 2016. But more specifically, he loves playing against his hometown team.Since he moved out of RCB in 2018, Rahul has racked up 789 runs against his former side, the most he’s scored against any team in that period. In his entire IPL career, his average of 69.91 against RCB is his best against any team. And his strike rate of 145.65 against RCB is only bettered by his 164.89 against another former team, Punjab Kings (PBKS).Rahul also scored a half-century in the reverse fixture, helping Delhi Capitals (DC) pull off a tricky chase in Bengaluru, and is approaching this game in scintillating form. In DC’s last game, Rahul blazed an incredible 152 not out off 67 deliveries against PBKS (the knock also being the reason his strike rate against PBKS climbed above his figure against RCB), and he also has scores of 57 and 92 in his four games prior to that.

Rahul also enjoys an excellent record against RCB’s bowling spearhead, Josh Hazlewood. Not only is Rahul the only batter to have scored more than 100 against Hazlewood in the IPL, but he’s also scored more runs against the Australian quick than anyone else in all T20s.

RCB, with five wins in seven games, are comfortably second on the points table, with a game in hand compared to the two other teams on 10 points. DC, though, have a four-point gap to bridge with the top four, and will be keen on staying in the mix for the playoffs spots, having lost four of their last five games.

Form guide

Royal Challengers Bengaluru WLWWL (last five completed matches, most recent first)
Delhi Capitals LLWLL

Key question

Team news: Salt still out injured, Ngidi in doubt

Lungi Ngidi has been DC’s best seamer this season, but he is in doubt after taking a blow to his head while attempting a catch against PBKS. Ngidi had to be stretchered off the ground and was taken to a hospital. An hour after the incident, the franchise said he was “stable” and due to be discharged shortly, but he may not be ready to play the game against RCB, with just a day’s gap between the two games. Kyle Jamieson and Dushmantha Chameera are overseas quicks who could come in for Ngidi, while allrounder Madhav Tiwari is an Indian option.

Delhi Capitals XII (probable): 1 KL Rahul (wk), 2 Pathum Nissanka, 3 Nitish Rana, 4 Sameer Rizvi, 5 Tristan Stubbs, 6 David Miller, 7 Axar Patel (capt), 8 Kyle Jamieson/Dushmantha Chameera, 9 Kuldeep Yadav, 10 T Natarajan, 11 Mukesh Kumar, 12 Auqib Nabi.

RCB opener Phil Salt missed their last game, against Gujarat Titans, with injury and their batting coach Dinesh Karthik confirmed that he is still unavailable. That means Jacob Bethell should get another game at the top and RCB are likely to stay unchanged.

Royal Challengers Bengaluru XII (probable): 1 Virat Kohli, 2 Jacob Bethell, 3 Devdutt Padikkal, 4 Rajat Patidar (capt), 5 Jitesh Sharma (wk), 6 Tim David, 7 Krunal Pandya, 8 Romario Shepherd, 9 Bhuvneshwar Kumar, 10 Rasikh Salam, 11 Josh Hazlewood, 12 Suyash Sharma.

Pathum Nissanka has got off to quick starts but hasn’t been able to convert them yet•BCCI

In the spotlight: Pathum Nissanka and Virat Kohli

DC signed up Pathum Nissanka in the auction after an uptick in performances in T20s since the start of 2025. From the start of 2025 to the start of IPL 2026, Nissanka averaged 34.18 and was striking at 158.02 in all T20s. His stunning century against Australia in the T20 World Cup, a month before the IPL, would have given DC confidence that they had found a perfect partner for Rahul at the top of the order. However, while Nissanka has got off to quick starts in IPL 2026 – reflected in his strike rate of 150 in the competition – he has been unable to convert them. He’s made just 147 runs in seven games, and DC will want him to start posting big scores soon, or they may look at alternate options like Abishek Porel, Prithvi Shaw or even Rehan Ahmed at the top.It’s another season of the IPL and Virat Kohli is Virat Kohli-ing again. He’s among the top run-scorers, picking up the Orange Cap a couple of times even as its changed hands (or heads) with great frequency. His strike rate of 163.18 is his best in any IPL season and he is coming into this game on the back of a match-winning 81 against GT. And much like Rahul, Kohli loves his hometown as well, and has seven IPL fifties in Delhi. He had steered RCB to victory in a tricky chase last season at the Arun Jaitley Stadium, and DC will be vary of the threat the RCB maestro poses.

Stats and triva

• Bhuvneshwar Kumar has solid records against DC’s top three. He’s dismissed Rahul and Nitish Rana only twice each, but they only strike at 109 and 122 against him respectively. He has also got the better of Nissanka three times in four innings, conceding just 22 runs in 24 balls.
• Jitesh Sharma has got out to Axar Patel twice in 19 balls, scoring just 15 runs against the left-arm spinner.
• Kohli is 72 runs away from reaching 400 runs in an IPL season for the 11th time. The closest to him are Shikhar Dhawan, David Warner and Suresh Raina, who did it nine times each.

Pitch and Conditions

This game will be played on Pitch No. 5, where GT made 210 earlier this season and DC fell short by one run in a last-ball thriller. In the four games played on this mixed-soil pitch since IPL 2025, the average first-innings score has been 197, so you can expect another high-scoring match.

Quotes

“The bowlers are challenged, isn’t it? 200, 220 runs, teams seem to be getting it and it almost feels like 220 is the old 180 or something like that. So it is a challenging situation for any bowling coach and any bowler. So obviously as a bowling unit, you need to be very aware of what’s happening and how the scores have increased and how you need to be thinking as a bowler and without revealing too much, I’d say so far we are trying our best to do a good job.”
RCB batting coach Dinesh Karthik on a tough life for bowlers

Abhimanyu Bose is a sub-editor with ESPNcricinfo