The defending champions of the Indian Premier League (IPL), ahead of the 2026 season, the Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB), recently got the nod to host a few of their home games at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru, while they will feature in two more home games at the Shaheed Narayan Veer Stadium in Raipur. That has been positive news for the franchise. 

RCB has reportedly revealed that their famous Unboxing event will happen at the Chinnaswamy Stadium on March 20 or 22. This is a massive show for the fans as the players will attend the event and have a blast, while on the other hand, there will be consequences and pressure on the management of the ground to host the party smoothly, especially after what happened in their victory parade.

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The Governing Council (GC) of the IPL has already cleared the first half of the schedule of IPL 2026, which is expected to be announced by March 06 or 07. The GC met online and decided to release the season 19 fixtures in two phases, with the first set likely later this week. 

RCB Unboxing event scheduled on March 20 or 22 in M. Chinnaswamy

The opponents of the RCB side are yet to be finalized. The reports have claimed that the start of the season could be pushed back by a few days, with March 28 or 29 emerging as possible dates, as the final, as announced earlier, will be held on May 31.

In the recent communication to the franchises, it was conveyed by the BCCI acting CEO and IPL COO, Hemang Amin, that the practice session guidelines would be shared next week, while it was also stated that the No Objection Certificates for the overseas players would also be shared in one go for the coming days.

There is no clarity yet on when the Stat Assembly election schedule will be declared. There is a limited time, for which the BCCI has decided to release the fixtures in two phases, as it has done in previous election years, as the first phase of the IPL 2026 will happen in the initial 13-14 days.