Royal Challengers Bengaluru captain Rajat Patidar won the toss and elected to field against Mumbai Indians in their IPL 2026 match in Raipur on Sunday. Suryakumar Yadav is once again standing-in for Hardik Pandya who missed a second consecutive game due to a back spasm. “Hardik has not been cleared by the medical team to take the field,” stated MI. Both RCB and MI retained their playing eleven from the last match. RCB had beaten MI by 18 runs in their previous meeting this season.
“No, we are pretty confident. I think we are happy to bat first. Big ground, black soil wicket, I think runs on board, always good pressure for the other team. (Any changes) Not really, we are going with the same team. (MI haven’t strung two wins together. What is going to be important to do that?) I think it’s all history now what has happened before. We are really looking forward to this game, big game, Super Sunday. Trying to put our best foot forward and have good entertainment for Raipur. (Discussions on their bowling) I think we’ve always had a good chat around that. I think this tournament, this IPL has been a little difficult and a little harsh on the bowlers. But that’s the beauty of T20 cricket. The way you come back, I think that shows a lot of character. So we keep trying to improve and get better each day,” Suryakumar said at the toss.
Patidar did not hesitate in choosing to bowl first.
“We will bowl first. Pretty obvious, surface is good and pretty hard. But we will try to get them as early as possible and go for the chase. Conditions are not unfamiliar to be honest. It’s a new stadium, good supporters and great outfield I would say and everyone is looking forward to the game. We are going with the same team. Yes we had a couple of losses but it’s important to be in the present and play on your strengths. So we will be focusing more on ourselves rather than other teams. (Areas to be better at today) I don’t think that there are one or two particular areas. Wherever it is. If we play in the powerplay or if we play after the powerplay we will look to do whatever best we can do,” he said.
Teams:
RCB: Rajat Patidar (c), Virat Kohli, Jacob Bethell, Jitesh Sharma (wk), Tim David, Romario Shepherd, Krunal Pandya, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Josh Hazlewood, Suyash Sharma and Rasikh Salam Dar.
MI: Suryakumar Yadav (c), Rohit Sharma, Ryan Rickelton (wk), Naman Dhir, Tilak Varma, Will Jacks, Raj Bawa, Corbin Bosch, Deepak Chahar, Jasprit Bumrah and AM Ghazanfar.
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