RCB vs SRH Live Score, IPL 2026: RCB host SRH at Chinnaswamy to get IPL 2026 started

RCB vs SRH IPL 2026: Toss Update, Playing XI & Match Preview.

RCB have won the toss and decided to bowl first in the season opener against Sunrisers Hyderabad. Rajat Patidar, leading RCB, didn’t hesitate to put Sunrisers in with the ball under the lights. On the other side, Ishan Kishan is captaining Sunrisers tonight, standing in for Pat Cummins as he recovers from injury.

Kishan didn’t seem too concerned about losing the toss.

He figured the fresh pitch probably won’t change much as the night goes on.

RCB rolled out a couple of new faces for this match. New Zealand’s Jacob Duffy and the almost-unknown Abhinandan Singh are both making their IPL debuts.

Abhinandan, 28, hasn’t played a single official match for his state.

But his performances in the UPT20 league caught the scouts’ eyes, earning him a spot over Mangesh Yadav. Duffy steps in while Josh Hazlewood, RCB’s key pacer, is still on the mend.

Phil Salt, Tim David, and Romario Shepherd are all in RCB’s starting XI.

So there’s no spot for Jacob Bethell tonight. Impact Sub options for RCB include Devdutt Padikkal and new signing Venkatesh Iyer.

SRH have a debutant too:

Salil Arora, who smacked 28 sixes in the recent Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy, was second only to Kishan himself in that tournament.

There’s no Liam Livingstone in the Sunrisers’ starting XI, but they’ve got Travis Head, Heinrich Klaasen, and Eshan Malinga all ready to go.

David Payne, their powerplay expert fresh off BBL and ILT20 wins, sits among their Impact Subs.

Here’s how the teams line up:

RCB bowl-first XI: Virat Kohli, Phil Salt, Rajat Patidar (captain), Jitesh Sharma (keeper), Tim David, Romario Shepherd, Krunal Pandya, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Abhinandan Singh, Jacob Duffy, Suyash Sharma.

Impact Subs: Devdutt Padikkal, Jacob Bethell, Rasikh Salam Dar, Kanishk Chouhan, Venkatesh Iyer.

SRH bat-first XI: Abhishek Sharma, Travis Head, Ishan Kishan (captain, keeper), Heinrich Klaasen, Aniket Verma, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Salil Arora, Harsh Dubey, Harshal Patel, Jaydev Unadkat, Eshan Malinga.

Impact Subs: Shivang Kumar, Liam Livingstone, David Payne, Smaran Ravichandran, Sakib Hussain.