BENGALURU: As Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) get ready to defend their Indian Premier League (IPL) title, their former captain and star batter Virat Kohli has warned the side of the challenging times ahead for them in the 19th edition of the competition, which will start on March 28.
RCB, who won their maiden IPL title in the 2025 edition, will start their defence of the title with a clash with Sunrisers Hyderabad at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru on March 28. They will then take on five-time champions Chennai Super Kings (CSK) in another home clash on April 5 in the first leg of the competition.
The RCB have started their preparatory camp in Bengaluru on Saturday with the first training session at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium.
India's star batsman, Virat Kohli, warned his RCB teammates that the 2026 IPL season would be more challenging; since they are the defending champions, other teams would redouble their efforts to defeat them, according to reports on Saturday.
During the team's first practice session, Kohli spoke to a small group consisting mostly of Indian players and urged them to give their absolute best in the coming weeks. "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 other teams are going to come hard at us, " Kohli told his teammates.