Royal Challengers Bengaluru Opt To Bowl Against Delhi Capitals After Toss In IPL 2026 Clash

Royal Challengers Bengaluru won the toss and decided to bowl against Delhi Capitals in the 39th match of the Indian Premier League 2026 at Arun Jaitley Stadium on Monday.

After the toss, RCB captain Rajat Patidar explained his decision and said, “We will bowl first. This is a high-scoring ground, so it won’t make much difference. We will try to put them under pressure in the second innings. The most important thing is that different players are stepping up and performing in different matches. We have been playing very good cricket and want to maintain that momentum. What’s done is in the past; we are now focused on playing good cricket.”

On the other side, DC skipper Axar Patel shared his view and said, “If I had won the toss, I would have fielded first. The ground is small, and the pitch gets better, so we would have preferred to chase as well. In the IPL, you can even lose after scoring 264 runs, but it is a long tournament. We have played well with both bat and ball; if we had capitalised on our chances, the result could have been different.”

“You have to keep doing your job. Even our best fielders drop catches, so luck hasn’t been on our side, but we cannot sit idle thinking about it. We have two fast bowlers—Chamira and Jamieson are playing. We need to take wickets in the power play. Mukesh has done well, but he needs rest, so we are bringing in international bowlers in his place,” he further added.

RCB will look to secure a win and reclaim the top position in the standings. DC, meanwhile, aim to climb higher with a positive result.

RCB have won five of their seven matches so far and currently occupy second place. DC stand seventh after losing four out of seven games.

Playing XIs

Delhi Capitals: Sahil Parakh, KL Rahul (wicketkeeper), Nitish Rana, Sameer Rizvi, Tristan Stubbs, David Miller, Axar Patel (captain), Dushmantha Chameera, Kyle Jamieson, Kuldeep Yadav and T Natarajan.

Royal Challengers Bengaluru: Virat Kohli, Devdutt Padikkal, Rajat Patidar (captain), Jitesh Sharma (wicketkeeper), Tim David, Romario Shepherd, Krunal Pandya, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Josh Hazlewood, Suyash Sharma and Rasikh Salam Dar.

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