Josh Hazlewood, Pat Cummins, Jacob Bethell OUT, Venkatesh Iyer, Liam Livingstone IN, Virat Kohli to…

RCB vs SRH Predicted Playing 12: Jacob Bethell is unlikely to get a starting position in Virat Kohli’s RCB in their opening IPL 2026 clash against Sunrisers Hyderabad on Saturday.

RCB vs SRH IPL 2026 Match No 1: The Indian Premier League (IPL) 2026 season is set to get underway with an explosive clash between defending champions Royal Challengers Bengaluru and Kavya Maran’s Sunrisers Hyderabad at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium on Saturday. Both RCB and SRH have been severely jolted by injury ahead of the IPL 2026 opener.

Former champions SRH will miss the services of their skipper Pat Cummins for the first half of the season, although he landed in Bengaluru before the opening match of the tournament. Wicketkeeper Ishan Kishan has been named as the interim skipper for the side in Cummins absence while world No. 1 T20I batter and opener Abhishek Sharma will be his deputy.

Virat Kohli’s RCB, who were recently bought for a record price of Rs 16,600 crore, will miss the services of Josh Hazlewood. The Australia pacer was their leading wicket-taker in the victorious IPL 2025 campaign but has been sidelined for the last few months due to an Achilles Heel injury which formed him to miss T20 World Cup 2026 as well.

Apart from Hazlewood, RCB will also miss left-arm pacer Yash Dayal – who will be sitting out the entire season due to various legal reasons. The home team are expected to go into the opener with New Zealand pacer Jacob Duffy as the replacement for Hazlewood, after he was bought for Rs 2 crore at the IPL 2026 mini auction.

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Duffy claimed over 50 wickets in the three formats of the game for the Black Caps in 2025 and will be making his IPL debut this year. In place of Dayal, RCB are likely to pick Madhya Pradesh pacer Mangesh Yadav – who was bought for Rs 5.2 crore at the IPL 2026 auction.

For Kavya Maran’s SRH, England pacer bowler Brydon Carse is likely to be the pick to replace injured skipper Cummins. Apart from these, there would be a few new faces in both the sides.

Former Kolkata Knight Riders all-rounder Venkatesh Iyer has shifted base to RCB after being bought for Rs 7 crore at the IPL 2026 mini auction. Iyer will be expected to bat in the top four position and also bowl some pace with the ball.

Former captain Kohli will be expected to continue his successful opening partnership with England’s Phil Salt followed by Iyer and captain Rajat Patidar in the batting order. RCB have a powerful lower middle-order with West Indies all-rounder Romario Shepherd in explosive form in T20 World Cup 2026 and Australia’s Tim David being equally destructive.

But with the depth in the RCB squad, England hero from the T20 World Cup 2026 semifinal – Jacob Bethell – is unlikely to get a starting position unless there is an injury to either David or Shepherd.

SRH’s top order has a familiar look to IPL 2025 season with Abhishek opening the innings with Travis Head and skipper Ishan coming at number three position. They have the likes of Nitish Kumar Reddy and Heinrich Klaasen backing them up in the middle order as well.

What better way to prep for the season than taking on Mr. Nags ahead of the first game? From Shampoo ad, to heroic stunts, Rajat does it all.
Watch @bigbasket_com presents RCB Insider with Mr. Nags – Season… pic.twitter.com/dNGPaM8siA
— Royal Challengers Bengaluru (@RCBTweets) March 26, 2026

RCB vs SRH IPL 2026 Match No 1 Predicted Playing 12

Royal Challengers Bengaluru: Virat Kohli, Phil Salt, Venkatesh Iyer, Rajat Patidar (c), Jitesh Sharma (wk), Tim David, Romario Shepherd, Krunal Pandya, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Suyash Sharma, Jacob Duffy, Mangesh Yadav

Sunrisers Hyderabad: Travis Head, Abhishek Sharma, Ishan Kishan (c and wk), Nitish Kumar Reddy, Heinrich Klaasen, Aniket Verma, Liam Livingstone, Brydon Carse, Harsh Dubey, Harshal Patel, Zeeshan Ansari, Jaydev Unadkat

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The Times Of Bengal