Bengaluru, April 18 (IANS) Both Delhi Capitals and defending champions Royal Challengers Bengaluru are unchanged as visitors skipper Axar Patel won the toss and elected to bowl first in match 26 of IPL 2026 at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium on Saturday.

RCB have started their title defence with four wins in five matches, while DC arrive after a week’s break with an aim to end their two-game losing streak. “The wicket looks nice and hard. Since it’s a day game, it might be a bit slow. Also, Chinnaswamy is usually a chasing ground, so we would like to chase. That’s why we decided to bowl first,” said Axar after winning the toss.

On having a long break in the competition, Axar said, “If you’re winning, the break would be bad. But since we lost the last two matches, the break helped us regroup. Now we are back together as a unit and ready to start with fresh momentum. Obviously we are looking at the opposition but we are focusing on our own strengths and sticking to our plans. We’ll follow our plans and see what happens.”

RCB captain Rajat Patidar gifted a sampling to his counterpart Axar before the toss began, as part of the franchise donning the iconic green jerseys for their annual ‘Green Initiative’.

“Happy to bat first because we were planning to bat first on this track. It’s a day game, looking like a good surface. So we’ll put a good total on the board and put them under pressure. We wear this jersey to show our commitment to sustainability and encourage everyone to make green choices for the planet.

“Of course, there was a lot of planning behind it (on playing well at Chinnaswamy). As you know, this year we have a final at Chinnaswamy, so we have to win all the home matches,” he said.

Conditions at the stadium are hot and dry for the afternoon fixture, with a slight breeze and scattered cloud cover. Square boundaries remain short at 65 and 64 metres respectively, while 73 metres is the straight boundary.

In the pitch report, Pommie Mbangwa and Faf du Plessis opined that the surface appears similar to the previous match, though marginally drier with less grass. As a day game, the wicket is expected to play slower, thus bringing spinners into the contest.

Playing XIs:

Delhi Capitals: Pathum Nissanka, KL Rahul (wicketkeeper), Sameer Rizvi, Axar Patel (captain), David Miller, Tristan Stubbs, Auqib Nabi Dar, Lungi Ngidi, Kuldeep Yadav, T Natarajan, and Mukesh Kumar

Impact Substitutes: Vipraj Nigam, Ashutosh Sharma, Karun Nair, Dushmantha Chameera, and Nitish Rana

Royal Challengers Bengaluru: Virat Kohli, Philip Salt, Devdutt Padikkal, Rajat Patidar (captain), Jitesh Sharma (wicketkeeper), Tim David, Romario Shepherd, Krunal Pandya, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Suyash Sharma, and Josh Hazlewood

Impact Substitutes: Rasikh Salam Dar, Venkatesh Iyer, Jordan Cox, Mangesh Yadav, and Vicky Ostwal

–IANS

nr/