Royal Challengers Bengaluru’s complicated relationship with the Chinnaswamy Stadium is well documented. Even during their run to a first IPL championship last year, they lost their first three home games, struggling to come to terms with a pitch that offered steepling, tennis-ball bounce from a length and caught out batters attempting cross-batted pulls in front of square.
They course-corrected soon after, winning their next two at home, but their march to the playoffs and beyond was largely built on their dominance on the road, where they swept every away fixture.
On the eve of the IPL 2026 opener against Sunrisers Hyderabad, the centre wicket was under careful attention. As many as five groundsmen helped roll the surface for more than half an hour, even as batters in the adjacent nets sent balls soaring into the stands. Looming above it all, the giant screen replayed a quick reminder of excess, that 288 plays 262 run-fest from the last meeting between these sides at this venue.
It has been nearly a year since the Chinnaswamy last hosted top-level cricket, and there is a sense of the surface being something of an unknown again. In Andy Flower’s assessment, it both looks and could play differently this time, potentially truer. Yet, having spent close to ten days training here in the build-up, RCB are banking on familiarity, or at least a head start, in decoding it.
“I don’t want to talk about all our lessons on the conditions in Chinaswamy. But we have had them, we lost our first three matches here in Chinaswamy last year, and we did learn from those experiences,” the RCB head coach said on the eve of the game. “Conditions might be slightly different in this first half, we’ll have to see. I haven’t been out to look at the pitch today yet, but I’ll go out there right now.
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“But I think the salient point is that at your home venue, you should be able to have a better understanding about the nuances of the conditions than your opposition. We’ve been practising here for ten days and we’ve talked about it. So I would like to think that we will be slightly ahead of the opposition on our own surface. We will see tomorrow night at 7.30.”
There are, however, small indicators that could shape how the game unfolds. Flower noted that dew had been minimal in the lead-up, a detail that might slightly ease the burden on the side bowling second at a venue where, historically, no score has felt entirely safe. Even so, all signs still point towards a high-scoring opener, with key bowlers missing on both sides and batting firepower in abundance.
Among those in focus on the eve of the game was Virat Kohli, stepping into his 19th season with the same franchise. Despite a two-month break since his last competitive outing – a consequence of his now one-format international schedule – there was little sign of rust in the nets. Flower, for one, has been watching closely.
“We have chatted about that [his one-format status], actually,” Flower said.
“I’ve always enjoyed watching top-class players practise as much as playing in games. It’s really interesting to watch them practise. When I was playing, I used to enjoy watching Sachin practise, for instance. The same goes here, even though I’m coaching. I really enjoy watching masters of their art do their thing. So I’ve been watching really closely. He [Kohli] looks on top of his game.
“He looks super fit. I was watching him do shuttles the other day. He looks light on his feet, very fit, very lean, very hungry. He’s always been very hungry and determined. I think that mental and emotional space that he’s in, where he’s very comfortable with himself as a person, but he’s also very hungry to drive himself as a professional sportsperson, I think he’s in a really good spot.
“Watching him time the ball and strike the ball in training, I think he’s at the peak of his powers. He’s aware of the fact that he’s playing less, but at the moment, he looks at the top of his game.”