{"id":"f-733bd7eecd-ac236243-4422-5a6a-be00-3c29673d36df","title":"Royal Challengers Bengaluru’s biggest challenge heading into IPL 2026","description":"Royal Challengers Bengaluru will be playing their home games at two different venues.","timestamp":1773384300,"category":"sports","headline":"Royal Challengers Bengaluru’s biggest challenge heading into IPL 2026","modifiedHeadline":"Can RCB defend trophy without Josh Hazlewood?","subCategories":["scid_185ed133"],"subcategoriesName":["Cricket"],"region":"IN","bundleMetaData":{"bundleId":"6ff0e53c-03a9-4fac-a199-00040694f01a","bundleTitle":"Indian Cricket","cardData":null},"iabCategoryId":"491","iabCategoryName":"Cricket","fcSummary":"royal challengers bangaluru, led by rajat patidar and coached by andy flower, secured their first ipl title. heading into ipl 2026, they face challenges including split home venues (bengaluru and raipur), potentially impacting home advantage. the injury to josh hazlewood also raises concerns, as his bowling was crucial last season. finding the right team combinations, particularly in the batting order, will be vital for continued success.","summary":"RCB faces venue split, Hazlewood's injury, & finding ideal team combos as they defend their IPL 2025 title heading into IPL 2026.","ctaUrl":"https://trends.glance.com/newz/sports/IN/en/sportstiger/f-733bd7eecd-ac236243-4422-5a6a-be00-3c29673d36df","sourceUrl":"https://www.sportstiger.com/cricket/royal-challengers-bengalurus-biggest-challenge-heading-into-ipl-2026","bannerImage":"https://g-mob.glance-cdn.com/public/fc/image/nkrGExounjZ0.webp","content":"

Defending champions Royal Challengers Bengaluru were crowned the champions in IPL 2025 winning their first ever IPL title. Rajat Patidar was the captain and Andy Flower with his coach and the entire team

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put up plenty of spectacular performances to bring the trophy home. As the upcoming season starts in just about two weeks time let us look at what will be Royal Challengers Bengaluru’s biggest challenge heading into the IPL 2026.

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Home Venues split

Royal Challengers Bengaluru will be playing their home games at two different venues. Just recently it was announced that they will be playing five matches at the Chinnaswamy Stadium and the other two matches will be in Raipur. From a long time in the past RCB have had the luxury of playing their home games only at Bengaluru but now this split will mean that they will have to adapt to different conditions and will miss a bit of home crowd and advantage in those two games. As we have seen in the past home advantage is big in IPL and they will miss that for a few games.

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Josh Hazlewood Injury

The injury to Josh Hazlewood and the unknown bit about whether he will be fit for action in the upcoming edition poses a lot of questions for RCB coming into IPL 2026. In the last edition when RCB went all the way to winning the trophy a big part of that success came from the bowling of Hazlewood. If he will miss a few games due to injury that will be a big blow.

Finding the right combinations

Despite winning the trophy last season, Royal Challengers Bengaluru did have a few areas of concern but those were masked by the fact that they won it eventually. But in the upcoming IPL 2026 it will be crucial for RCB to find the right combinations. They will have to make a choice between playing Phil Salt or Bethell at the top of the order and similarly they will need to make sure they pick their best possible team and that will be a challenge for them in IPL 2026.

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Royal Challengers Bengaluru’s biggest challenge heading into IPL 2026

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