Virat Kohli (Image credit: BCCI/IPL)
New Delhi: Defending champion Royal Challengers Bengaluru are set to take on Delhi Capitals in the IPL 2026 encounter at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium on Saturday. In their last match against Lucknow Super Giants, star batsman Virat Kohli was deployed as an impact player.Kohli suffered an ankle injury in the win over Mumbai Indians and did not take the field in the second innings, but contributed 49 runs against LSG.This raises the key question – will Kohli once again emerge as an impact player against Delhi Capitals?RCB have been in great form this season, suffering just one defeat, which came against Rajasthan Royals. Apart from that, they have registered dominant wins over Sunrisers Hyderabad, Chennai Super Kings, Mumbai Indians and Lucknow Super Giants, placing them second on the points table.Winning this match could see them go to the top. RCB also has a positive head-to-head record, winning 20 of their 33 matches against Delhi Capitals, who have 12 wins, with one match ending without a result.As far as the squad is concerned, Kohli is expected to be fully fit and is likely to return as a regular starter. However, if the team chooses to manage his workload, he could be used again as an impact player.
After the win over LSG, Kohli admitted he was still regaining full fitness after suffering a knee injury and a brief illness, though he was satisfied with his batting effort.
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“Much better than the last match. I’m still not 100%. I was feeling a little bit of pain in my knee in the last match. Even health-wise, I’ve had bad weather for four or five days now. So, I’m just back to my best. I started well today, so I was happy with my strength. Again, I wanted to keep going and finish the match.”
Sometimes you have to take conditions into consideration as well. The pitch slowed down dramatically, and I just wanted to keep going the same way.
But yeah, in the end, he probably should have finished that game too,” Kohli said after the match against LSG.the difference:Royal Challengers Bengaluru: Philip Salt, Virat Kohli, Devdutt Padikkal, Rajat Patidar (C), Jitesh Sharma (K), Tim David, Romario Shepherd, Krunal Pandya, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Jacob Duffy, Suyash Sharma, Raseekh Salamdar, Venkatesh Iyer, Jacob Bethel, Swapnil Singh, Mangesh Yadav, Josh Hazlewood, Jordan. Cox, Nuwan Thushara, Vicky Ostwal, Vihan Malhotra, Abhinandan Singh, Kanishk Chauhan, Satvik Deswal.Delhi Capitals: KL Rahul (wk), Pathum Nissanka, Nitish Rana, Sameer Rizvi, Axar Patel (c), Tristan Stubbs, David Miller, Viraj Nigam, Lungi Ngidi, Kuldeep Yadav, T Natarajan, Mukesh Kumar, Ashutosh Sharma, Aqib Nabi Dhar, Dushmantha Chameera, Karun Nair, Mitchell Starc, Kyle. Jamieson, Ajay Jadhav Mandal, Prithvi Shaw, Tripurana Vijay, Abhishek Porel, Sahil Parakh, Madhav Tiwari
