Royal Challengers Bengaluru look all set to qualify for the playoffs with seven wins in 11 games and they will be up against Kolkata Knight Riders at the Shaheed Veer Narayan Singh International Stadium, Raipur on Wednesday in the 57th match of the ongoing IPL 2026.
On the other hand, Kolkata Knight Riders went through a horrid run in the first phase of the tournament but they have been able to turn a corner, winning their last four games and thus have kept themselves alive in the competition.
Finn Allen scored a 47-ball 100 in the previous game against Delhi Capitals and it was a huge positive for KKR. Allen had failed to deliver as per the expectations and this knock will certainly add a shot in his arm.
Furthermore, Kartik Tyagi has continued to impress as he bagged 2-25 in his quota of four overs against DC.
Meanwhile, RCB’s batting has floundered a bit in the recent past. In the absence of Phil Salt, Jacob Bethell has failed to grab his chances. Virat Kohli has bagged two consecutive ducks whereas Jitesh Sharma’s form has not improved one bit.
However, Bhuvneshwar Kumar has been superb for the defending champions and has breathed down the neck of the opposition batters with his accurate line and length and more importantly, swing, which is the most potent weapon in his arsenal.
Head to Head: Matches: 36, Won by KKR: 20, Won by RCB: 15, No result: 1.
Kolkata Knight Riders Squad: Ajinkya Rahane(c), Finn Allen, Angkrish Raghuvanshi(w), Cameron Green, Rovman Powell, Manish Pandey, Rinku Singh, Sunil Narine, Anukul Roy, Kartik Tyagi, Vaibhav Arora, Varun Chakaravarthy, Ramandeep Singh, Tejasvi Dahiya, Navdeep Saini, Tim Seifert, Rachin Ravindra, Blessing Muzarabani, Matheesha Pathirana, Rahul Tripathi, Sarthak Ranjan, Prashant Solanki, Saurabh Dubey, Umran Malik, Daksh Kamra
Royal Challengers Bengaluru Squad: Jacob Bethell, Virat Kohli, Devdutt Padikkal, Rajat Patidar(c), Krunal Pandya, Jitesh Sharma(w), Tim David, Romario Shepherd, Rasikh Salam Dar, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Josh Hazlewood, Suyash Sharma, Jordan Cox, Mangesh Yadav, Venkatesh Iyer, Jacob Duffy, Philip Salt, Nuwan Thushara, Vihaan Malhotra, Abhinandan Singh, Kanishk Chouhan, Satvik Deswal, Vicky Ostwal, Swapnil Singh
