In the <a href="https://www.mid-day.com/sports/cricket/article/ipl-2026-rcb-all-rounder-krunal-pandya-reveals-his-ultimate-goal-23625503" rel="nofollow">IPL 2026</a> match against Mumbai Indians (MI), Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) secured a win by 18 runs at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai.
RCB's all-rounder Krunal Pandya said that the Impact Player rule has changed batting dynamics in the league. Considering that the team consists of eight batsmen, he said that players such as Vaibhav Sooryavanshi and <a href="https://www.mid-day.com/sports/cricket/article/ipl-2026-faf-du-plessis-mukul-choudhary-powerful-flick-shots-remind-me-of-ms-dhoni-back-in-the-day-23625101" rel="nofollow">Mukul Choudhary</a> start smashing from the very first ball.
"Previously, without an impact player, you had a number six all-rounder, a number seven all-rounder. Batsmanship was quite different. But now, having eight pure batters, plus the skill set, you see the young boys, like Mukul, Vaibhav, so many of them are just coming and just hitting from ball one consistently. So as a bowler, I always want to be one step ahead with the skill set, as well as with the mental battle, as well," he told reporters.
The all-rounder also said that it becomes difficult for the finger spinners to bowl on flat tracks with the opponent team having eight batsmen.
"And it has just purely come from that, whether it's me bowling those, bending my knee and bowling that bouncer. I mean, it just, I'm glad that it is coming out well and hope that in this format, finger spinners can survive and can take something out of it and do well. Because for finger spinner, with having such flat tracks, and eight batters, it has become very difficult," he said.
In the match against the "Paltan", he returned with the figures of one wicket for 26 runs in four overs.
Following the win, <a href="https://www.mid-day.com/sports/cricket/photo/ipl-2026-virat-kohli-becomes-first-player-to-score-1000-runs-against-mumbai-indians-110577/1" rel="nofollow">RCB</a> is placed in the third position on the points table. With three wins and one loss, the Rajat Patidar-led team has a net run rate (NRR) of +1.148 and six points.
The Royal Challengers' next game is against Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) on April 15 at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru.
<h2>IPL 2026, Royal Challengers Bengaluru vs Lucknow Super Giants: Full Squads</h2>
Royal Challengers Bengaluru: Virat Kohli, Josh Hazlewood, Swapnil Singh, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Jacob Duffy, Krunal Pandya, Jitesh Sharma (WK), Venkatesh Iyer, Phil Salt (WK), Rajat Patidar (C), Nuwan Thushara, Romario Shepherd, Tim David, Devdutt Padikkal, Yash Dayal, Rasikh Salam, Jordan Cox, Jacob Bethell, Vicky Ostwal, Mangesh Yadav, Suyash Sharma, Vihaan Malhotra, Abhinandan Singh, Kanishk Chouhan, Satvik Deswal.
Lucknow Super Giants: Mitchell Marsh, Mohammed Shami, Shahbaz Ahmed, Anrich Nortje, Nicholas Pooran (WK), Aiden Markram, Avesh Khan, Wanindu Hasaranga, Himmar Singh, Matthew Breetzke, Rishabh Pant (C) (WK), Josh Inglis (WK), M Siddharth, Moshin Khan, Ayush Badoni, Arjun Tendulkar, Akash Singh, Abdul Samad, Arshin Kulkarni, Naman Tiwari, Akshat Raghuvanshi, Mayank Yadav, M Choudhary (WK), Prince Yadav, Digvesh Rathi.
(With ANI Inputs)

IPL 2026: The Royal Challengers Bengaluru`s (RCB) next game is against Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) on April 15 at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru

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