Ipl 2026 Rcb Wins The Toss Elects To Bowl Against Srh

The first match of the 19th season of the Indian Premier League (IPL) is being played on Saturday between Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) and Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) at the M. Chinnaswamy Cricket Stadium. RCB captain Rajat Patidar has won the toss and decided to bowl first. Jacob Duffy is making his debut in IPL for RCB.

Rajat said after winning the toss, “We will bowl first. There are many excellent players in the team. Everyone is fully fit and are eagerly waiting for this match. We will try our best to put the second star on our jersey.” Abhinandan Singh is also making his IPL debut from RCB in this match.

At the same time, Ishan Kishan said that it does not matter whether winning or losing the toss. “The wicket looks very fresh, it doesn’t matter whether you bat first or bowl first. You don’t need to do anything new. We just have to execute our plans properly. Everyone looks in good rhythm,” he said.

RCB won the title for the first time in IPL 2025, ending a drought of 18 years. The RCB team under the leadership of Rajat Patidar is looking very strong this time too. Like last season, the team will be expecting a strong performance from Virat Kohli and Phil Salt this time too. Devdutt Padikkal is scoring a lot of runs in domestic cricket.

At the same time, captain Rajat will have the responsibility of handling the team’s innings while playing at number four. However, RCB may definitely miss fast bowler Josh Hazlewood, who is not available for the first few matches. In the absence of Hazlewood, Bhuvneshwar Kumar will be seen playing an important role with the new ball.

On the other hand, Sunrisers Hyderabad will be expecting strong performances from Abhishek Sharma, Travis Head and captain Ishan Kishan. Head and Abhishek’s bat did not perform as expected last season, which also affected the team’s performance.

Aniket impressed with his batting last season. Nitish Kumar Reddy would like to make significant contributions with both bat and ball. In bowling, the trio of Harshal Patel, Ishan Malinga and Jaydev Unadkat will be seen testing the batsmen.

RCB’s playing eleven: Virat Kohli, Phil Salt, Rajat Patidar (captain), Jitesh Sharma (wicketkeeper), Tim David, Romario Shepherd, Krunal Pandya, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Abhinandan Singh, Jacob Duffy, Suyyash Sharma.

Playing XI of Sunrisers Hyderabad: Abhishek Sharma, Travis Head, Ishan Kishan (wicketkeeper/captain), Heinrich Klaasen, Aniket Verma, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Salil Arora, Harsh Dubey, Harshal Patel, Jaydev Unadkat, Ishan Malinga.