“The franchise worked hard for many years to get that star on our shirts. That was embodied most in Virat’s commitment to the franchise over such a long period of time,” Flower said at the pre-match press conference here on Friday.
“But it is now 2026, and we are looking forward to this season’s challenge,” Flower said.
Flower drew a comparison between long-serving RCB stalwart Virat Kohli and Sachin Tendulkar.
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“When I was playing, I used to enjoy watching Sachin practise. The same goes here (with Kohli). I really enjoy watching masters of their art do their thing. Virat looks on top of his game. He looks very fit, very lean, very hungry. Watching him time and strike the ball in training – I think he’s at the peak of his powers,” Flower said.
The former Zimbabwe captain stated that Hazlewood will not feature in Saturday’s outing. “He won’t be ready for tomorrow; he’s just got off the plane. We’ll be monitoring his fitness very closely, and we are looking forward to him making his entrance into the IPL,” Flower said.
The 57-year-old termed the ‘Impact Player’ rule as an “interesting addition” to the sport. “Tactically it’s quite an interesting addition. I must say though that one of the things I love about cricket is the challenges you have in balancing your eleven. It’s one of the things that makes selection a little bit tricky. The Impact Player rule hides that selection problem a little,” Flower said.
The main quotes:
With Yash Dayal and Josh Hazlewood out of action, RCB banks on uncapped Indian seamers to come good. “We have Mangesh (Yadav), Abhinandan (Singh) and Rasikh (Salam) all competing for a place. I’m not going to tell you now who’s playing, but we’re happy with recruiting Mangesh to replace Yash Dayal. We’re also happy with Abhinandan’s progress. Rasik is a better bowler than he was last year,” RCB head coach Andy Flower said.
RCB is hopeful that it can reverse its poor recent record on its home ground, the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium. “We lost our first three matches here at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium last year. We did learn from those experiences. Conditions might be slightly different in this first game. I think the salient point is that at your home venue you should be able to have a better understanding about the nuances of the conditions than your opposition,” Flower said.
Published on Mar 27, 2026
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