The stage is set for the 19th edition of the IPL (Indian Premier League) 2026; the marquee event is all set to kick off on March 28, and many eyes will be set upon defending champions Royal Challengers Bengaluru. Breaking their title curse, RCB lifted the IPL title after defeating Punjab Kings in the 2025 final.
Ahead of the new season of the tournament, RCB star and former skipper Virat Kohli took centre stage and asked for complete dedication from his team. In a clip that RCB shared on social media, Kohli was seen encouraging his team in their first training session at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru.
Kohli talked about how coming into the new IPL season, the going will be tough for RCB, as they are the defending champions and teams will go after them in hopes of dethroning them.
“We worked really hard over the last two to three seasons to achieve what we did last year, and it’s only going to get tougher because the other teams are going to come hard at us. We don’t waste these days. We stay ahead. So, switch on now. Let’s not waste even a minute of every session we are a part of. We must give our 120% for these two and a half months. I can see from everyone’s faces that we are excited enough to be challenged,” Kohli said in the video.
Andy Flower welcomed the new players in the session as well
Furthermore, RCB head coach Andy Flower began the first practice session by welcoming the new players in the side. He opined that the squad has drastically improved after the auction as well.
“We had an interesting auction. I think we’ve improved our squad, to be quite frank. “We brought in some great new additions. So, integrating those new players into the RCB way with some of the established players, obviously led by Virat and Rajat, is an exciting part of building a new team together. If there is one difference this year, we have actually got a star on our shirts. So that is a very proud feeling to have for all RCBians. One thing that I would emphasise, though, is that the season’s gone and now we have a new challenge ahead of us, and it’s a really exciting challenge. We’re here to win this year’s IPL,” Flower said.
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