The IPL 2026 season opener between Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) and Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) saw a dramatic moment even before the first ball. Former England captain Kevin Pietersen made a factual error during his pre-match pitch report.
While analysing the surface at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium, Pietersen provided a detailed breakdown of the grass cover and weather conditions. However, he left fans and experts baffled when he mentioned two of the biggest names in world cricket in this match who were both already confirmed to miss the fixture.
The Blunder: Mentioning the Absentees
Speaking live from the center, Pietersen said:
“Weather conditions are good. Set for a lovely, lovely, lovely batting display. The surface has got a beautiful covering of grass. Yes, there are a few bare patches. There are a couple of fast bowlers running around. There is Cummins, There is Hazlewood. Do I think they will make too much of an impact – I’m not so sure.”
The only problem? Neither Pat Cummins nor Josh Hazlewood is playing today.
As confirmed earlier by both franchises, SRH’s regular skipper Pat Cummins is sidelined with a back injury (handing the captaincy to Ishan Kishan), while RCB’s Josh Hazlewood is nursing an Achilles strain.
Talking about the match, RCB captain Rajat Patidar has won the toss and elected to bowl first.
“We’ll bowl first. Of course, there are a lot of positives from last year, but as we go into this season, we are not defending, we’ll try to be champions again in 2026. I think there are a lot of good players in the side and we have proper backups for every position,” Patidar told Ian Bishop at the toss.
“There’s a good support system and medical team as well. So yeah, everyone is fit and looking forward to this game. Thank you so much for supporting us over the years. We’ll try our best to put a second star on our jersey. There are two new faces – Jacob Duffy and Abhinandan Singh who are going to play their first match,” he added.
RCB vs SRH Playing 11 confirmed at the toss:
Royal Challengers Bengaluru (Playing XI): Virat Kohli, Philip Salt, Rajat Patidar(c), Jitesh Sharma(w), Tim David, Romario Shepherd, Krunal Pandya, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Abhinandan Singh, Jacob Duffy, Suyash Sharma
Sunrisers Hyderabad (Playing XI): Abhishek Sharma, Travis Head, Ishan Kishan(w/c), Heinrich Klaasen, Aniket Verma, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Salil Arora, Harsh Dubey, Harshal Patel, Jaydev Unadkat, Eshan Malinga