The stakes are high for defending champions Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) as they kick-start the IPL 2026 edition in the opener against Sunrisers Hyderabad at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium on March 28.
RCB have the right set of players and have the momentum to go the distance this year too and lot would depend how their star batter Virat Kohli performs. From the videos posted by RCB on its social media handles, Kohli looks in great touch during the net sessions.
RCB’s batting revolves around Kohli who scored 600-plus runs in the last three consecutive IPL seasons. In one of the videos shared on X by RCB, Kohli is seen motivating his team-mates during a training session and urging them to give “120% for these two and a half months”.
“We worked really hard over the last two to three seasons to achieve what we did last year, and it’s only going to get tougher because the other teams are going to come hard at us,” Kohli said.
“We don’t waste these days. We stay ahead. So, switch on now. Let’s not waste even a minute of every session we are part of. We must give our 120% for these two and a half months. I can see from everyone’s faces that we are excited enough to be challengers,” he also said.
Kohli would be eyeing another milestone when IPL 2026 kicks off, becoming the first batter to score more than 9,000 runs in IPL history. Kohli has scored 8,661 runs in 267 matches, which includes eight centuries and 63 half-centuries.
RCB won their maiden IPL trophy last year and sharing his thoughts on the players the franchise bought at the auction, head coach Andy Flower said: “We had an interesting auction. I think we’ve improved our squad, to be quite frank. We brought in some great new additions. Integrating those players into the RCB way, alongside some of the established names led by Virat and Rajat, is an exciting part of building a new team together,” Flower said.
