NEW DELHI: Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) captain Rajat Patidar won the toss and opted to bowl first against Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) in their IPL 2026 match at Lucknow's Ekana Stadium on Thursday.
Injury Setbacks for LSG
LSG faced significant injury setbacks as pacer Mohsin Khan and Australian batter Josh Inglis were unavailable for selection. At the toss, LSG skipper Rishabh Pant confirmed the changes: "We have a few injuries in our team. So Arshin (Kulkarni) comes in for Inglis, he's a little injured. Mohsin is also little injured, and Shahbaz (Ahmed) comes in for Sid (Manimaran Siddharth)."
Pant further elaborated on the team's approach: "The only thing is moving with more clarity. We know we are the top players, but at the same time, when clarity is missing sometimes, it can happen in cricket. So most of the time, the talk is about clarity, and there are a few changes in the batting order, so hopefully we can figure out and take it for the next season. Having a stable environment in T20 cricket is essential, but at the same time, when the changes are needed, you should be able to change something, because every time, doing the same thing might not give you the same outcome. So trying sometimes, especially where we stand now, trying is not a bad option for sure."
Regarding the pitch, Pant assessed it as a good batting surface: "It looks like 180-190 wicket for sure. It's a better wicket than a lot of the matches for sure."
RCB's Strategy
RCB captain Rajat Patidar explained his decision to bowl first: "We will bowl first. It's not as loud as Chinnaswamy, but it's still loud. I think we're gonna get a pretty hard surface, but I'm not sure, it's a black soil pitch and the past four or five matches here had low scores. We'll try to restrict them to as low a score as possible."
Patidar also spoke about the team's preparation after a break: "It was a good break I would say. And everyone is looking in good frame of mind. And we came together after six or seven days of pretty hard work plus a couple of weeks. As I said, everyone is doing pretty well throughout the tournament and we are looking forward for this game. We're playing with the same team."
Playing XIs
Royal Challengers Bengaluru (Playing XI): Jacob Bethell, Virat Kohli, Devdutt Padikkal, Rajat Patidar (c), Jitesh Sharma (w), Krunal Pandya, Romario Shepherd, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Suyash Sharma, Rasikh Salam Dar, Josh Hazlewood.
Lucknow Super Giants (Playing XI): Mitchell Marsh, Arshin Kulkarni, Nicholas Pooran, Aiden Markram, Rishabh Pant (w/c), Akshat Raghuwanshi, Himmat Singh, Shahbaz Ahmed, Digvesh Singh Rathi, Mohammed Shami, Prince Yadav.
Impact Substitutes
Royal Challengers Bengaluru Impact subs: Jordan Cox, Tim David, Mangesh Yadav, Vicky Ostwal, Venkatesh Iyer.
Lucknow Super Giants Impact subs: Mayank Yadav, Mukul Choudhary, Abdul Samad, Manimaran Siddharth, Avesh Khan.
Stay updated with the latest IPL Live Score, IPL news on Times of India. Follow the IPL Schedule, check the IPL Points Table, and track the race for the IPL Orange Cap and IPL Purple Cap.
