New Delhi: Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) won the toss and opted to bowl first in Match 23 of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2026 against Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium on Wednesday. While Rajat Patidar’s decision to bowl first was on expected lines, the absence of Virat Kohli in the playing XI was unexpected.

The RCB talisman was named as an Impact Sub in the RCB vs LSG match, raising concerns about his fitness. Kohli suffered an ankle injury in RCB’s previous clash against the Mumbai Indians (MI) on Sunday and didn’t field in the second innings.

He was doubtful for the clash against LSG but was surprisingly, for the first time in his IPL career, named as an Impact Sub.

Why is Kohli not part of the RCB playing XI vs LSG?

It seems that the decision to name Kohli as an Impact sub has been taken as a precautionary measure due to the ankle injury he suffered against MI.

The move to name him in the Impact Sub list keeps Kohli, the batter, in the squad, for RCB’s run-chase in the second innings without risking further damage to his ankle by forcing him to field for 20 overs.

The RCB management is managing the workload of the superstar batter while managing his niggle.

Kohli was included as an Impact player a year after he expressed his dislike of the much-debated rule and said that he preferred to be in the game for a full match rather than a limited time.

Kohli, a fitness icon, rarely misses matches, and his absence from the XI also means that this is the first time in eight years that an injury has made an impact on his playing status.

RCB, aiming to continue its winning run after dominating MI on Sunday, made one change, replacing Jacob Duffy with Josh Hazlewood. Meanwhile, LSG named an unchanged XI.

Playing XIs

RCB: Philip Salt, Devdutt Padikkal, Rajat Patidar (c), Jitesh Sharma (wk), Tim David, Romario Shepherd, Krunal Pandya, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Josh Hazlewood, Suyash Sharma, Rasikh Salam Dar.

LSG: Aiden Markram, Mitchell Marsh, Rishabh Pant (wk/c), Nicholas Pooran, Ayush Badoni, Abdul Samad, Mukul Choudhary, Mohammed Shami, Avesh Khan, Digvesh Singh Rathi, Prince Yadav.

Impact Subs

RCB: Virat Kohli, Venkatesh Iyer, Jordan Cox, Kanishk Chouhan, Mangesh Yadav

LSG: Manimaran Siddharth, George Linde, Matthew Breetzke, Himmat Singh, Mayank Yadav