Bengaluru, March 28 (IANS) Defending champions Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) have handed debuts to pacers Abhinandan Singh and Jacob Duffy as captain Rajat Patidar elected to bowl first against Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) in the IPL 2026 opening clash at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium on Saturday.

Saturday’s game also marks the return of competitive cricket to the M Chinnaswamy Stadium for the first time since May 17, 2025, especially after a stampede during RCB’s title winning celebrations on June 4 that claimed 11 lives.

Extensive changes have since been carried out at the stadium, while RCB players will take the field wearing black armbands as a mark of respect to those who lost their lives last season and sported number ‘11’ jerseys during their practice session ahead of the clash.

Amidst loud cheers from the RCB-supporting crowd, Patidar said, “It is a season opener, so let’s see how the wicket behaves. There are a lot of positives from last season. We are not defending anything, we will win in IPL 2026 as well.

“There are a lot of good players in the side and the backup players are great as well. All players are fit and the medical staff is looking after the players. Thank you so much (to the fans) for supporting us. We will try and win this again,” he said.

SRH, the 2016 winners, will be led by Ishan Kishan, the franchise’s second-youngest skipper after Kane Williamson, as regular captain Pat Cummins continues to recover from a lumbar stress injury in the back. Kishan, captaining in the IPL for the first time, also said Punjab batter Salil Arora will be debuting in the competition.

“Feeling good, and we wanted to field first as well. We want to back our instincts. You don’t have to start something new just because it is the IPL. We just want to execute our plans.

“Obviously Pat is one of the best bowlers, but everyone looks in good touch and I feel we will be on the winning side. Salil is there (in the playing eleven), and just want him to keep things simple and trust his instincts,” he said.

Playing XIs

Royal Challengers Bengaluru: Virat Kohli, Philip Salt, Rajat Patidar (captain), Jitesh Sharma (wk), Tim David, Romario Shepherd, Krunal Pandya, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Abhinandan Singh, Jacob Duffy, and Suyash Sharma

Impact Substitutes: Devdutt Padikkal, Jacob Bethell, Rasikh Salam, Kanishk Chouhan, and Venkatesh Iyer

Sunrisers Hyderabad: Abhishek Sharma, Travis Head, Ishan Kishan (captain & wicketkeeper), Heinrich Klaasen, Aniket Verma, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Salil Arora, Harsh Dubey, Harshal Patel, Jaydev Unadkat, and Eshan Malinga

Impact Substitutes: Shivang Kumar, Liam Livingstone, David Payne, Smaran Ravichandran, and Sakib Hussain

–IANS

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