RCB faces SRH in the IPL 2026 opener today at M. Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru. As defending champions, RCB holds a slight edge due to home advantage on a batting-friendly pitch.
Predicted Playing 11
Predictions vary slightly across sources due to potential injuries like Josh Hazlewood for RCB and Pat Cummins for SRH, with Rajat Patidar captaining RCB and Ishan Kishan leading SRH.
RCB
-
Phil Salt (wk), Virat Kohli, Devdutt Padikkal, Rajat Patidar (c), Jitesh Sharma, Tim David, Romario Shepherd/Krunal Pandya, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Yash Dayal, Suyash Sharma, Jacob Duffy.
SRH
-
Travis Head, Abhishek Sharma, Ishan Kishan (c/wk), Nitish Kumar Reddy, Heinrich Klaasen, Liam Livingstone, Harshal Patel/Aniket Verma, Bhuvneshwar Kumar/Harshal Dubey, Jaydev Unadkat, T Natarajan/Zeeshan Ansari.
Head-to-Head Stats
SRH leads overall with 13 wins to RCB's 11 in 26 matches (2 no results), but RCB has a strong home record at Chinnaswamy (5-3).
Match Prediction
RCB is favored to win with predictions around 53-72% chance, thanks to batting depth (Kohli, Salt), home crowd, and Chinnaswamy's flat track favoring chases amid dew. SRH's aggressive openers like Head and Abhishek could flip it into a run-fest.
