IPL 2026: Hosts Royal Challengers Bengaluru eye happy goodbye!

RCB players celebrate the wicket of Delhi Capitals’s Karun Nair at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru last week. Pics/IPL

A break of five days at any stage of any competition is a massive luxury. Having already had a week-long gap between their two opening games, Royal Challengers Bengaluru enjoyed another extended ‘holiday' after their six-wicket loss to Delhi Capitals last Saturday.

Refreshed and potentially recharged, the defending champs will play their final league fixture this season at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium on Friday against Gujarat Titans. RCB's two remaining ‘home' games will be played in Raipur next month.

GT skipper Shubman Gill

Like RCB, Shubman Gill's outfit too is coming off a chastening home defeat, by 99 runs against Mumbai Indians. While RCB can afford to dismiss the DC defeat as a one-off - they had won three games on the bounce at home before that - Gujarat's problems are more deep-rooted, especially with their middle-order of Glenn Phillips, Rahul Tewatia and Shahrukh Khan decidedly undercooked.

The 2022 champions have been well served by a quality pace attack spearheaded by Kagiso Rabada and Mohammed Siraj, with last season's Purple Cap winner Prasidh Krishna, the local lad, complementing them superbly. After a forgettable 2025, Afghanistan leg-spinner Rashid Khan has turned the clock back, but their batting line-up has largely gone AWOL. Gill (265 runs) and Jos Buttler to an extent aside, there has been no consistency, with Sai Sudharsan going off the boil and Washington Sundar still coming to grips in his new avatar at No. 4. RCB aren't unaware of the massive batting problems GT are currently grappling with, and Josh Hazlewood and Bhuvneshwar Kumar will seek to exploit those chinks with ruthless professionalism. The return of Aussie Hazlewood has elevated the profile and incisiveness of the RCB attack, where Rasikh Salam has held his own with his clever changes of pace and relentless accuracy, and spinners Krunal Pandya and Suyash Sharma have proved to be more than a handful.

The holders will be determined to leave Chinnaswamy with happy memories as they prepare for a month on the road.

10.97
RCB's run-rate at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium this season; they have amassed 777 runs across 70.5 overs in four matches

One
No. of matches RCB have lost in Bengaluru in their last six games there