Royal Challengers Bengaluru and Sunrisers Hyderabad players are wearing black armbands for the first game of IPL 2026. Here's why.
Last season, RCB won their first IPL title, in their 18th attempt. However, a hastily arranged victory celebration and parade the day after the final, to which fans were invited, saw tragedy unfold as a stampede at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium gates resulted in eleven deaths and numerous injuries.
There had been no professional cricket at the venue since the last IPL, which meant the stadium missed out on hosting games in the Women's World Cup and the Men's T20 World Cup. It was only after months of checks, approvals and improvements that the ground was cleared to host IPL matches this season. RCB will play five of their home games in Bengaluru, and the other two in Raipur, which had been sought out as an alternate option before the Chinnaswamy received clearance.
Ahead of the new season, the franchise released a statement following a press conference: "Royal Challengers Bengaluru players will wear jersey number 11 during the warm-up session ahead of their first home game of the season and black armbands during the match, while 11 seats at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium will be kept empty as a tribute to the fans who lost their lives."
A plaque honouring the eleven fans was also installed at the stadium.
Match 1, Royal Challengers Bengaluru vs Sunrisers Hyderabad
vs
- Ball by ball Over
Playing XIs: Royal Challengers Bengaluru vs Sunrisers Hyderabad, IPL 2026 match 1
RCB
Playing XI: Phil Salt, Virat Kohli, Rajat Patidar (c), Jitesh Sharma (wk), Tim David, Romario Shepherd, Krunal Pandya, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Abhinandan Singh, Suyash Sharma, Jacob Duffy.
Substitutes: Devdutt Padikkal, Jacob Bethell, Rasikh Salam, Kanishk Chouhan, Venkatesh Iyer.
SRH
Playing XI: Travis Head, Abhishek Sharma, Ishan Kishan (c & wk), Heinrich Klaasen, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Salil Arora, Aniket Verma, Harsh Dubey, Harshal Patel, Eshan Malinga, Jaydev Unadkat.
Substitutes: Shivang Kumar, Liam Livingstone, David Payne, R Smaran, Sakib Hussain.
RCB won the toss and elected to field first.
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