After the major fiasco at the Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru last year, the domestic IPL franchise, Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) had to shift their home ground for the upcoming season after the KSCA could not fix the issues at the Chinnaswamy Stadium and deemed it not suitable to host the IPL.
Royal Challengers Bangalore won their first title in IPL 2025 under the leadership of their new and young captain Rajat Patidar. RCB’s victory came at a time when no one was sure that they could win this season.
However, what happened after the win last season will remain the darkest day in IPL history. Many RCB fans who had gathered for their victory procession were caught in a stampede situation and several people died in the stampede. This raised many questions on the officials responsible for the conduct as well as the management of Chinnaswamy Stadium and KSCA.
The commission, which was set up to lead the investigation into the events of that day, later ruled out Chinnaswamy as a possible venue for holding public gatherings or matches with such large crowds.
RCB shifts to new location ahead of IPL 2026
After several attempts by the KSCA, the Chinnaswamy Stadium could not be deemed suitable to host such competitive games. Therefore, the defending champions will have to shift their home proceedings to some other venue.
According to TOI report, the Royal Challengers Bangalore team will now play their home matches at DY Patil Stadium in Navi Mumbai and Shaheed Veer Narayan Singh Stadium in Raipur. This means that legendary Indian cricketer Virat Kohli will be playing in an RCB shirt and not in Chinnaswamy for the first time in 19 editions.
The report further states that their five home matches will be played at the DY Patil Stadium in Navi Mumbai and two matches at the Shaheed Veer Narayan Singh Stadium in Raipur. “RCB officials have finalized all the arrangements after meeting with the relevant authorities,” a TOI report confirmed.
Rajasthan Royals have secured MCA Stadium as their home ground for the IPL season.
On the other hand, Rajasthan Royals were also looking forward to a change of venue from their previous venue of Sawai Mansingh Stadium in Jaipur. This came after some disagreements and clashes with the Rajasthan Cricket Association.
The conflict began when an RCA official leveled match-fixing allegations against Rajasthan Royals, who was suspended over the same issue in 2016. Further issues that led to the change were seating capacity issues and lack of proper facilities.
Rajasthan Royals have now shifted their home venue to the Maharashtra Cricket Association (MCA) Stadium in Gahunje, Pune, and will play their home matches for IPL 2026 at the same venue.
In today’s TOI 🙂 pic.twitter.com/DLSc8vP96x
– Gaurav Gupta (@toi_gauravG) 13 January 2026
Royal Challengers Bangalore will defend their title for the first time in 2026
Royal Challengers Bangalore not only won their first title in 2025 but also retained the faith of their countless fans who supported them with loyalty all these years. Hence they will be defending their title for the first time in an IPL season.
Rajat Patidar is likely to remain the captain of the team and Virat Kohli and Krunal Pandya will come to help him. Players like Phil Salt, Tim David, Jacob Bethel and Josh Hazlewood will join the new inclusions of Venkatesh Iyer and Mangesh Yadav in whom RCB have invested big money and immense faith.
Also read: Nitish Kumar Reddy and India’s shocking selection differences: Selected by Agarkar, sidelined under Gambhir