The 2026 season was Royal Challengers Bengaluru's nineteenth appearance in the Indian Premier League (IPL). They were one of the ten cricket teams that competed in the 2026 IPL. The team was captained by Rajat Patidar and coached by Andy Flower.
Royal Challengers Bengaluru finished in first place in the league stage, and advanced to Qualifier 1 in the playoffs. The team defeated Gujarat Titans in Qualifier 1 to qualify for Bengaluru's fifth final. In the final, they defeated Gujarat Titans again to win their second consecutive title. Royal Challengers Bengaluru also became the first franchise to win the IPL and the Women's Premier League in the same year. Virat Kohli scored the most runs (675) while Bhuvneshwar Kumar took the most wickets (28) for Bengaluru in the 2026 season.
Pre-season
The 2026 Indian Premier League was the 19th edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL), a professional Twenty20 (T20) cricket league held in India, organised by the Board of Control for Cricket in India. Royal Challengers Bengaluru were the defending champions having won their maiden title in the previous season. The tournament featured ten teams competing in 74 matches from 28 March to 31 May 2026. Bengaluru played most their home matches at M. Chinnaswamy Stadium with two matches played at Shaheed Veer Narayan Singh Stadium.
Player retention Franchises were allowed to retain any number of players from their squad, including traded players while excluding players signed as temporary replacements. Franchises were required to submit their retention lists before 15 November 2025. Bengaluru retained seventeen players, including captain Rajat Patidar and former captain Virat Kohli.
+ Retained players Domestic Overseas Yash Dayal Bhuvneshwar Kumar Virat Kohli Devdutt Padikkal Krunal Pandya Rajat Patidar Rasikh Salam Abhinandan Singh Swapnil Singh Jitesh Sharma Suyash Sharma Jacob Bethell Tim David Josh Hazlewood Phil Salt Romario Shepherd Nuwan Thushara + Released players Batters Wicket-keepers All-rounders Bowlers Mayank Agarwal Swastik Chikara Tim Seifert Manoj Bhandage Liam Livingstone Mohit Rathee Blessing Muzarabani Lungi Ngidi
Auction The season's auction took place on 16 December 2025 in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. The auction purse for each franchise was set at , with franchises being deducted an amount from the purse for every retained player. Bengaluru had a purse remaining of . Bengaluru bought eight players in the auction, including three capped players and two overseas players.
+ Auctioned players Domestic Overseas Capped Uncapped Capped Uncapped Venkatesh Iyer Kanishk Chouhan Satvik Deswal Vihaan Malhotra Vicky Ostwal Mangesh Yadav Jordan Cox Jacob Duffy
Squad Players with international caps as of start of 2026 IPL are listed in bold. Ages are as of . Withdrawn players are indicated by a dagger symbol () and placed at the bottom of the table.
+ Royal Challengers Bengaluru squad for the 2026 Indian Premier League Name Nationality Birth date Batting style Bowling style Salary Notes 5 Suyash Sharma Right-handed Right-arm leg-break 6 Krunal Pandya Left-handed Left-arm orthodox 8 Tim David Right-handed Right-arm off-break Overseas 14 Abhinandan Singh Right-handed Right-arm fast-medium 15 Bhuvneshwar Kumar Right-handed Right-arm medium 18 Virat Kohli Right-handed Right-arm medium 22 Jordan Cox Right-handed Right-arm off-break Overseas 24 Swapnil Singh Right-handed Left-arm orthodox 25 Venkatesh Iyer Left-handed Right-arm medium 27 Jacob Duffy Right-handed Right-arm fast-medium Overseas 28 Phil Salt Right-handed Overseas 37 Devdutt Padikkal Left-handed Right-arm off-break 38 Josh Hazlewood Right-handed Right-arm fast-medium Overseas 42 Rasikh Salam Right-handed Right-arm medium 48 Romario Shepherd Right-handed Right-arm fast-medium Overseas 55 Jitesh Sharma Right-handed Stand-in captain 97 Rajat Patidar Right-handed Right-arm off-break Captain Kanishk Chouhan Right-handed Right-arm off-break Satvik Deswal Right-handed Left-arm orthodox spin Vihaan Malhotra Left-handed Right-arm off-break Richard Gleeson Right-handed Right-arm fast-medium Overseas; replacement Vicky Ostwal Right-handed Left-arm orthodox spin Mangesh Yadav Left-handed Left-arm fast 2 Jacob Bethell Left-handed Left-arm orthodox Overseas; withdrawn 13 Yash Dayal Right-handed Left-arm medium-fast Withdrawn 53 Nuwan Thushara Right-handed Right-arm fast-medium Overseas; withdrawn
Support staff Position Name Head coach Andy Flower Assistant coach Richard Halsall Batting coach and mentor Dinesh Karthik Bowling coach Omkar Salvi Source: News18
League stage Royal Challengers Bengaluru began their season with two wins against Sunrisers Hyderabad and Chennai Super Kings. They lost to Rajasthan Royals, won against Mumbai Indians and Lucknow Super Giants, lost to Delhi Capitals, and won against Gujarat Titans and Delhi. Then they lost to Gujarat and Lucknow, won against Mumbai, Kolkata Knight Riders and Punjab Kings and ended the group stage with a loss to Hyderabad. With nine wins from 14 matches, they finished the league stage in first place and advanced to Qualifier 1 in the playoffs.
Points table
League progression
Fixtures
Playoffs Bracket
Qualifier 1
Final
Statistics
+ Most runs Runs Player 675 Virat Kohli 501 Rajat Patidar 464 Devdutt Padikkal 305 Tim David 226 Krunal Pandya + Most wickets Wickets Player 28 Bhuvneshwar Kumar 19 Rasikh Salam 15 Josh Hazlewood 14 Krunal Pandya 9 2 players
References
External links
Royal Challengers Bengaluru at IPLT20.com