Kamal Ghorui
NEW DELHI: Defending champions Royal Challengers Bengaluru are set to take on Delhi Capitals in their IPL 2026 encounter at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium on Saturday. In their last outing against Lucknow Super Giants, star batter Virat Kohli was deployed as an Impact Player.Kohli had sustained an ankle injury during the win over Mumbai Indians and did not take the field in the second innings, but still contributed 49 runs against LSG.That raises the key question – will Kohli once again feature as an Impact Player against Delhi Capitals?RCB have been in impressive form this season, suffering just one defeat, which came against Rajasthan Royals. Apart from that, they have recorded dominant wins over Sunrisers Hyderabad, Chennai Super Kings, Mumbai Indians and Lucknow Super Giants, placing them second on the points table.A victory in this game could see them climb to the top. RCB also have a favourable head-to-head record, having won 20 of the 33 matches played against Delhi Capitals, who have 12 wins, with one match ending without a result.As far as team combination is concerned, Kohli is expected to be fully fit and likely to return as a regular player. However, if the team opts to manage his workload, he could once again be utilised as an Impact Player.Following the win over LSG, Kohli admitted he is still regaining full fitness after a knee issue and a brief illness, though he was satisfied with his batting effort.
“Much better than the last game. I’m still not 100%. My knee was a bit sore in the last game. Even health-wise, I’ve been under the weather for four or five days now. So, just getting back up to my best. I started well today, so I was happy with my intensity. Again, would have liked to carry on and finish the game off. Sometimes you have to take the conditions into account as well. The pitch slowed down considerably, and I just wanted to keep going in the same manner. But yeah, in the end, should have probably finished that one off as well,” Kohli had said after the match against LSG.Squads:Royal Challengers Bengaluru: Philip Salt, Virat Kohli, Devdutt Padikkal, Rajat Patidar(c), Jitesh Sharma(wK), Tim David, Romario Shepherd, Krunal Pandya, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Jacob Duffy, Suyash Sharma, Rasikh Salam Dar, Venkatesh Iyer, Jacob Bethell, Swapnil Singh, Mangesh Yadav, Josh Hazlewood, Jordan Cox, Nuwan Thushara, Vicky Ostwal, Vihaan Malhotra, Abhinandan Singh, Kanishk Chouhan, Satvik Deswal.Delhi Capitals: KL Rahul(wk), Pathum Nissanka, Nitish Rana, Sameer Rizvi, Axar Patel(c), Tristan Stubbs, David Miller, Vipraj Nigam, Lungi Ngidi, Kuldeep Yadav, T Natarajan, Mukesh Kumar, Ashutosh Sharma, Auqib Nabi Dar, Dushmantha Chameera, Karun Nair, Mitchell Starc, Kyle Jamieson, Ajay Jadav Mandal, Prithvi Shaw, Tripurana Vijay, Abishek Porel, Sahil Parakh, Madhav Tiwari
