LIVE BUZZ | IPL 2026, RCB vs SRH: Kohli vs Abhishek Beckons

LIVE | IPL 2026, RCB vs SRH: The Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) team will wear black armbands during their Indian Premier League (IPL) campaign opener against Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) at M Chinnaswamy Stadium on Saturday to pay tribute to fans who tragically lost their lives in the stampede outside the venue following team's historic title win last year.

LIVE | IPL 2026, RCB vs SRH: The discipline of Josh Hazlewood will certainly be missed by RCB, who are the defending champions. 

LIVE | IPL 2026, RCB vs SRH: Pat Cummins is a match-winner and with the kind of experience he brings to the table, the Sunrisers are bound to miss his services against RCB. 

LIVE | IPL 2026, RCB vs SRH: The craze has peaked as fans have already started gathering outside the M. Chinnaswamy stadium to watch the IPL curtain-raiser. 

LIVE | IPL 2026, RCB vs SRH: The curtain-raiser at the M. Chinnaswamy stadium is set to start at 7:30. The toss takes place at 7:00 PM. 

LIVE | IPL 2026, RCB vs SRH: Ahead of the curtain-raiser Mo Babat said we’re very confident in the options we’ve got in the squad. 

“Rasikh, who many of you will know. Abhinandan also had been there last year. And then we also signed Mangesh in this auction. So, domestically we have three excellent potential options that we’re facing. So, it’s obviously a blow losing a player like Yash (Dayal). That’s obvious, he’s been an important part of us for the last couple of years. But we’re very confident in the options we’ve got in the squad. And we will select a team accordingly,” Bobat said.

LIVE | IPL 2026, RCB vs SRH: It is likely that the team winning the toss would like to chase. Nowadays most teams are more comfortable knowing what to get. 

LIVE | IPL 2026, RCB vs SRH: History suggests that batters enjoy playing at the M. Chinnaswamy. The highest team total and overall match total has happened at this very venue. With both sides loaded with big-hitters, we should be in for a run-fest today. 

LIVE | IPL 2026, RCB vs SRH: The IPL 2026 match between Royal Challengers Bengaluru and Sunrisers Hyderabad will be streamed live on the JioCinema app and website.

LIVE | IPL 2026, RCB vs SRH: Bhuvneshwar Kumar would be making his debut and he would also have a feat in his radar. He 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.

LIVE | IPL 2026, RCB vs SRH: 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.

LIVE | IPL 2026, RCB vs SRH: When the two teams - RCB and SRH - meet, the powerplay would be important. 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.

LIVE | IPL 2026, RCB vs SRH: Check SRH's Predicted XII

SRH Predicted XII: Ishan Kishan (capt, wk), Abhishek Sharma, Travis Head, Heinrich Klaasen, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Liam Livingstone/Eshan Malinga, Salil Arora, Aniket Verma, Harsh Dubey, Brydon Carse, Harshal Patel, Jaydev Unadkat

LIVE | IPL 2026, RCB vs SRH: Here is the predicted XII RCB may field. 

RCB's Predicted XII: Virat Kohli, Phil Salt, Devdutt Padikkal, Rajat Patidar (capt), Jitesh Sharma (wk), Jacob Bethell/Tim David, Romario Shepherd, Krunal Pandya, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Suyash Sharma, Jacob Duffy, Rasikh Salam

LIVE | IPL 2026, RCB vs SRH: If you thought the spotlight will only be on Kohli, you are wrong. The spotlight would also be on young Jacob Bethell. He comes into IPL 2026 on the back of a spectacular century against India during the T20 World Cup at the Wankhede Stadium. 

LIVE | IPL 2026, RCB vs SRH: Ex-CSK star R. Ashwin things it will happen. No team has ever breached the 300-run mark, but it is possible as per Ashwin. As per Ashwin it is possible because teams have strong batting line-ups and with the pitches being good for batting. 

LIVE | IPL 2026, RCB vs SRH: There is hardly any doubt that the Chinnaswamy would be full house for the opening night. The RCB fans would certainly turn up to cheer for their heroes tonight. 

LIVE | IPL 2026, RCB vs SRH: Kohli is certainly capable of getting a hundred on the opening night. If he does that, RCB should be in the driver's seat in the game. 

LIVE | IPL 2026, RCB vs SRH: It goes without saying that the spotlight would be on Kohli as it always is. He is the big player for the home side and they would hope he fires on the opening night itself. 

LIVE | IPL 2026, RCB vs SRH: Who can forget the 2016 final when the two teams met. On that night, the Orange Army came up on top. Today would be an all new game and hence it is difficult to predict.