The Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) will not be playing their home games at the Chinnaswamy stadium in IPL 2026. This comes following the stampede that took place outside the stadium and had claimed lives of 11 people while injuring many more. It proved to be a tragic event for RCB and their fans as the stampede took place during the side's victory parade in Bengaluru just a day after after they had won the IPL title for the first time in 18 years.
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According to a report by The Times of India, RCB have finalised Navi Mumbai's DY Patil stadium and Raipur's Shaheen Veer Narayan Singh stadium for their home matches next season. Out of the seven home games that they will play in the upcoming season, five of them will be played in Navi Mumbai while the remaining two will be played in Raipur.
“RCB will play five matches in Navi Mumbai and two in Raipur during IPL 2026. The RCB officials have finalised the arrangement recently after meetings with the concerned officials," The Times of India quoted a source as saying on Tuesday.
No action in Chinnaswamy
The Chinnaswamy stadium is yet to host an international fixture ever since the stampede took place. The Karnataka State Cricket Association (KSCA) has tried a lot to bring cricket back to the venue and have even held meetings with the state government. However, nothing seems to work in their favour as recently the government didn't give them the permission to host Karnataka's Vijay Hazare Trophy matches at the venue. They eventually had to be shifted to BCCI's Centre of Excellence (CoE) in Bengaluru.
RR to shift home venue as well?
Meanwhile, another IPL franchise that may end up shifting their home venue for IPL 2026 is Rajasthan Royals (RR). According to reports, they might play their home games at the Maharashtra Cricket Stadium in Pune instead of the Sawai Mansingh stadium in Jaipur. However, the Rajasthan Cricket Association had recently assured the BCCI that all safety, security and infrastructure requirements will be fully met at the stadium in Jaipur ahead of IPL 2026. It remains to be seen as to where will RR play their home games for the upcoming season.