Patidar's RCB host Shubman Gill's Gujarat at Chinnaswamy with both captains in serious form
Royal Challengers Bengaluru host Gujarat Titans at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium on Friday, 24 April at 7:30 pm IST. Both sides come in with six matches played and a lot to play for. RCB are comfortably in the top half of the table on eight points, with four wins and two losses. Gujarat are on six points, and licking their wounds after a 99-run hammering at the hands of Mumbai Indians in Ahmedabad on 20 April.
Two captains who have not missed
The numbers for Rajat Patidar and Shubman Gill this season are slightly absurd. Patidar has 230 runs at a strike rate just above 213, is second on the six-hitting chart in IPL 2026, and has been the difference in games where RCB's openers have not quite taken off. Gill, GT's captain and opener, has 265 runs in five innings at an average of 53 and a strike rate of 151, with three fifties. He was in line for the Orange Cap until a rare low score against Mumbai pulled him back into the pack.
Neither captain has been done for pace or spin with any consistency, which is a short way of saying the bowlers on both sides will have to plan for specific match-ups rather than hoping someone gets it wrong.
What the Chinnaswamy is offering
Batting, essentially. The first four matches at the ground this season have produced an average first-innings score of 193, and the powerplay scores have been sitting in the 50 to 55 range. RCB's home record here is strong, and the dew factor in the second innings tends to blunt spin after the break.
For Gujarat, the bowling plan has to be sharper than it was against Mumbai, where the GT attack was taken apart and Gill's men never really got a foothold in the chase. Prasidh Krishna has been their most reliable option, sitting near the top of the Purple Cap standings. RCB, in turn, will lean on Bhuvneshwar Kumar, who has ten wickets already, and Kagiso Rabada, whose new-ball spells in Bengaluru have been the quiet engine of their season.
Kohli, and a familiar sub-plot
Virat Kohli sits third in the Orange Cap standings with 247 runs. His numbers at Chinnaswamy across nineteen IPL seasons barely need repeating, and he is the kind of player who tends to show up in a Friday night home game under lights. If Phil Salt gets his partner away cleanly, RCB’s powerplay could be the decisive phase.
Gujarat cannot really afford another defeat if they want to stay in the playoff picture. A win here, in Bengaluru, against a strong home side, would be the kind of result that resets a season. RCB, meanwhile, have a chance to push further clear of the chasing pack and build a little bit of separation with the back half of the league still to play.
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