Delhi Capitals won the toss and asked Royal Challengers Bengaluru to bat first in Saturday’s afternoon fixture at a sun-baked M Chinnaswamy Stadium. Skipper Axar Patel felt the surface would, as usual, remain true under lights and could suit a measured chase later in the day. “The numbers here still lean towards the side batting second,” he noted during the toss interview.
Rajat Patidar, leading RCB again while Faf du Plessis continues to sit out, did not look too fussed. RCB, he said, had “preferred to bat first”, so both captains left the rope without anyone needing to pretend the decision hurt.
Neither team tinkered with its line-up. Delhi stuck with the same XI that lost in Chennai on 11 April, which means Auqib Nabi – the seamer from Jammu & Kashmir – keeps his spot despite a quiet debut (2-0-17-0 and four runs with the bat). He is listed at No. 7 today; Ashutosh Sharma remains the likeliest Impact Sub once the chase begins.
RCB, fresh from beating Lucknow, also resist change. Rasikh Salam Dar is again on the Impact list and could replace a batter when it is their turn to bowl. The main curiosity is whether Virat Kohli stays as an Impact player. Against LSG he sat out the fielding innings – the first time he had done so in the IPL – and then admitted to feeling “soreness in his knee” as well as a touch of flu during the build-up. That management of workloads may continue.
Today’s match is RCB’s 100th IPL game at the Chinnaswamy, almost 19 years to the day since their first here. A win would lift them, briefly at least, to the top of a tightly packed 2026 table. The ground staff have produced another firm, even strip; anything under 200 can feel short, yet scores have varied this season and two of the three chases have been successful.
Teams
Royal Challengers Bengaluru: Virat Kohli, Phil Salt, Devdutt Padikkal, Rajat Patidar (capt), Jitesh Sharma (wk), Tim David, Romario Shepherd, Krunal Pandya, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Suyash Sharma, Josh Hazlewood.
Impact options: Rasikh Salam Dar, Venkatesh Iyer, Jordan Cox, Mangesh Yadav, Vicky Ostwal.
Delhi Capitals: Pathum Nissanka, KL Rahul (wk), Sameer Rizvi, Axar Patel (capt), David Miller, Tristan Stubbs, Auqib Nabi, Lungi Ngidi, Kuldeep Yadav, T Natarajan, Mukesh Kumar.
Impact options: Vipraj Nigam, Ashutosh Sharma, Karun Nair, Dushmantha Chameera, Nitish Rana.
Analysis, later in the day, will focus on how Nabi and Ngidi manage the new ball in unforgiving conditions and whether RCB’s lower-order firepower – Tim David and Romario Shepherd in particular – can stretch Delhi past their comfort zone. For now the temperature sits in the mid-30s, the pitch looks a belter, and everyone seems relieved the toss removed at least one headache.
