Royal Challengers Bengaluru have won the toss and have opted to bowl first in their IPL 2026 opening game against Sunrisers Hyderabad at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru. RCB, who are the defending champions, are without the services of premium pacers Josh Hazlewood and Yash Dayal. SRH, on the other hand, do not have regular captain Pat Cummins featuring in the playing XI. Both sides have been forced to make changes to their regular line-up. RCB have replaced Hazlewood and Dayal with Abhinandan Singh and Duffy. Meanwhile, SRH have decided to rope in domestic star Harsh Dubey into their playing XI along with Ehsan Malinga.
RCB vs SRH LIVE score
SRH playing XI vs RCB in IPL 2026
Abhishek Sharma, Travis Head, Ishan Kishan(w/c), Heinrich Klaasen, Aniket Verma, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Salil Arora, Harsh Dubey, Harshal Patel, Jaydev Unadkat, Eshan Malinga
RCB playing XI vs SRH in IPL 2026
Virat Kohli, Philip Salt, Rajat Patidar(c), Jitesh Sharma(w), Tim David, Romario Shepherd, Krunal Pandya, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Abhinandan Singh, Jacob Duffy, Suyash Sharma
RCB have decided to ignore Rs 7 crore buy Venkatesh Iyer and Devdutt Padikkal in their playing XI. Despite the pheonmenal record that the latter posses in white-ball formats in domestic cricket, the latter has been left out. Instead captain Patidar will bat at number 3 followed by Jitesh at 4. RCB have roped in Duffy as a replacement for Hazlewood and Abhinandan as a replacement for Dayal. While the Australian pacer has joined the RCB camp, he is yet to completely recover from his injuries in order to be match-fit.
Josh finished as RCB’s leading wicket-taker in IPL 2025. With 22 wickets from 12 matches, Hazlewood was not only the spearhead of RCB’s pace department but was also their go-to bowler when the team needed wickets. He averaged 17.54 with the ball.
As for Dayal, the Indian pacer is an alleged rape accused and has been ruled out of the tournament.
Meanwhile, SRH have handed keeper-batter Salil Arora his IPL debut as regular captain Pat Cummins misses out on the IPL 2026 opener. SRH boast of a strong batting unit, with the duo of Travishek set to rock RCB. Salil had a good season in domestic cricket prior to IPL 2026 and is poised to become a breakout star. He scored 358 runs in just 8 games in Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy 2025, averaging 71.60 and boasting of a strike rate of 198.88. Mind you, he made his debut only in 2025!
“I think Salil (Arora) is one to watch. He’s been in very good touch, and I just want him to keep things simple, watch the ball and play his game,” SRH stand-in skipper Kishan said at the toss.
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