Virat Kohli Reached Bengaluru For IPL 2026: There are less than 10 days left for the start of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2026 and defending champion Royal Challengers Bangalore’s biggest match-winner Virat Kohli reached Bengaluru on Wednesday, March 18. Virat has been seen on Indian soil for the first time after the ODI series against New Zealand in January 2026. In the video going viral on social media, Kohli was seen coming out of the airport amid tight security. Like always, this time too her style was in discussion. During this time, he was seen in a cool look wearing a blue sweatshirt, black trackpants and cap, which the fans are liking very much. RCB also posted a video in a special way on his return and wrote, You don’t have to see him… to know he’s coming! Check the calendar. There will be signs… which has further increased the curiosity of the fans.

Virat will play an important role in IPL 2026

Virat Kohli’s role is going to be very important in saving the trophy for RCB. This 37-year-old star batsman had a special contribution in RCB’s historic victory in IPL 2025. He scored a total of 657 runs with a strike rate of 144.71 and an excellent average of 54.75 and played a big role in his team winning the first title after 17 years. Let us tell you that Virat has now retired from T20 International and Test cricket and plays only ODI cricket. In such a situation, his experience and focus in IPL becomes even more important for RCB.

You don’t have to see him… to know he’s coming! Check the calendar. There will be signs…#PlayBold #நமம்RCB #IPL2026 pic.twitter.com/qv8tA5ZCrA

— Royal Challengers Bengaluru (@RCBTweets) March 18, 2026

rcb ipl 2026 schedule

RCB will start its IPL 2026 campaign on March 28 against Sunrisers Hyderabad at its home ground. After this, on April 5, they will face five-time champion Chennai Super Kings. Then the team will play two consecutive away matches against Rajasthan Royals on 10th April and Mumbai Indians on 12th April.

RCB squad for IPL 2026

batsman – Rajat Patidar (captain), Devdutt Padikkal, Virat Kohli, Phil Salt, Jitesh Sharma, Jordan Cox.

Allrounders – Krunal Pandya, Swapnil Singh, Tim David, Romario Shepherd, Jacob Bethel, Venkatesh Iyer, Satvik Deswal, Mangesh Yadav, Vicky Ostwal, Vihaan Malhotra, Kanish Chauhan.

bowler – Josh Hazlewood, Rasikh Dar, Suyyash Sharma, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Nuwan Thushara, Abhinandan Singh, Jacob Duffy.

Before the IPL 2026 auction, all 10 teams have released their lists of retained and released players. After the announcement of IPL retention, the main squads of most of the teams have been confirmed. Now the auction to fill the remaining slots will be held on December 16. Kolkata Knight Riders is the team which has retained the least number of players. Except KKR, all the teams have retained 15 or more players. 3 teams including Punjab Kings retained 20 or more players. See here the squads of all 10 teams after the announcement of retention.

Chennai Super Kings Team (CSK Squad 2026)

Rituraj Gaikwad, MS Dhoni, Dewald Brewis, Ayush Mhatre, Urvil Patel, Anshul Kamboj, Jamie Overton, Ramakrishna Ghosh, Shivam Dubey, Khalil Ahmed, Noor Ahmed, Mukesh Chaudhary, Nathan Ellis, Shreyas Gopal, Gurjapaneet Singh, Sanju Samson.

• How many players did CSK retain – 16 (4 foreigners)
• Available Slots- 9 (4 Foreign)

Delhi Capitals Team (DC Squad 2026)

KL Rahul, Karun Nair, Abhishek Porel, Tristan Stubbs, Axar Patel, Sameer Rizvi, Ashutosh Sharma, Vipraraj Nigam, Ajay Mandal, Tripuran Vijay, Madhav Tiwari, Mitchell Starc, T Natarajan, Mukesh Kumar, Dushmantha Chameera, Kuldeep Yadav, Nitish Rana.

• How many players did DC retain – 17 (3 foreigners)
• Available Slots- 8 (5 Foreign)

Gujarat Titans Team (GT Squad 2026)

Shubman Gill, Sai Sudarshan, Kumar Kushagra, Anuj Rawat, Jos Buttler, Nishant Sindhu, Glenn Phillips, Washington Sundar, Arshad Khan, Shahrukh Khan, Rahul Tewatia, Kagiso Rabada, Mohammed Siraj, Prasidh Krishna, Ishant Sharma, Gurnoor Singh Brar, Rashid Khan, Manav Suthar, Sai Kishore, Jayant Yadav.

• How many players did GT retain – 20 (4 foreigners)
• Available Slots- 5 (4 Foreign)

Kolkata Knight Riders Team (KKR Squad)

Ajinkya Rahane, Rinku Singh, Angkrish Raghuvanshi, Manish Pandey, Rovman Powell, Anukul Roy, Ramandeep Singh, Vaibhav Arora, Sunil Narine, Varun Chakraborty, Harshit Rana, Umran Malik.

• How many players did KKR retain – 12 (2 foreigners)
• Available Slots- 13 (6 Foreign)

Lucknow Super Giants Team (LSG Squad 2025)

Rishabh Pant, Ayush Badoni, Abdul Samad, Aiden Markram, Himmat Singh, Matthew Bretzke, Nicholas Pooran, Mitchell Marsh, Shahbaz Ahmed, Arshin Kulkarni, Mayank Yadav, Avesh Khan, Mohsin Khan, M. Siddharth, Digvesh Rathi, Prince Yadav, Akash Singh, Arjun Tendulkar, Mohammed Shami.

• How many players did LSG retain – 19 (4 foreigners)
• Available Slots- 6 (4 Foreign)

Mumbai Indians Team (MI Squad 2026)

Rohit Sharma, Surya Kumar Yadav, Robin Minz, Ryan Rickelton, Tilak Verma, Hardik Pandya, Naman Dheer, Mitchell Santner, Will Jack, Corbin Bosch, Raj Bawa, Trent Boult, Jasprit Bumrah, Deepak Chahar, Ashwani Kumar, Raghu Sharma, Allah Ghazanfar, Mayank Markande, Shardul Thakur, Sherfane Rutherford.

• How many players did MI retain – 20 (7 foreigners)
• Available Slots- 5 (1 Foreign)

Punjab Kings Team (PBKS Squad 2026)

Shreyas Iyer, Nehal Wadhera, Vishnu Vinod, Harnoor Pannu, Paila Avinash, Prabhsimran Singh, Shashank Singh, Marcus Stoinis, Harpreet Brar, Marco Johnson, Azmatullah Omarzai, Priyansh Arya, Mushir Khan, Suryansh Shedge, Mitch Owen, Arshdeep Singh, Yuzvendra Chahal, Visak Vijaykumar, Yash Thakur, Xavier Bartlett, Lockie Ferguson.

• How many players did PBKS retain – 21 (6 foreigners)
• Available Slots- 4 (2 Foreign)

Royal Challengers Bangalore Team (RCB Squad 2026)

Rajat Patidar, Virat Kohli, Tim David, Devdutt Padikkal, Phil Salt, Jitesh Sharma, Krunal Pandya, Jacob Bethel, Romario Shepherd, Swapnil Singh, Josh Hazlewood, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Rasikh Salaam, Yash Dayal, Suyyash Sharma, Nuwan Thushara, Abhinandan Singh.

• How many players did RCB retain – 17 (6 foreigners)
• Available Slots- 8 (2 Foreign)

Rajasthan Royals Team (RR Squad 2026)

Shubham Dubey, Vaibhav Suryavanshi, Luan-Dre Pretorius, Shimron Hetmyer, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Dhruv Jurel, Ryan Parag, Yudhvir Singh Charak, Joffra Archer, Tushar Deshpande, Fazalhaq Farooqui, Quena Mafaka, Nandre Berger, Ravindra Jadeja, Sam Curran, Donovan Ferreira.

• How many players did RR retain – 16 (7 foreigners)
• Available Slots- 9 (1 Foreign)

Sunrisers Hyderabad Team (SRH Squad 2026)

Travis Head, Abhishek Sharma, Aniket Verma, R Smrana, Ishan Kishan, Heinrich Klaasen, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Harsh Dubey, Kamindu Mendis, Harshal Patel, Brydon Carse, Pat Cummins, Jaydev Unadkat, Ishan Malinga, Zeeshan Ansari.

• How many players did SRH retain – 15 (6 foreigners)
• Available Slots- 10 (2 Foreign)