India, March 21 -- Royal Challengers Bengaluru are entering the IPL 2026 from unfamiliar ground. For years, they were the franchise mocked for falling short despite carrying some of the tournament's biggest names. That tag finally disappeared in 2025, when RCB broke through for their first IPL title. Now comes the harder part: defending it.

That reality framed the mood at RCB's first training session of the new season at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium, where Virat Kohli delivered a pointed message to the squad. The warning was simple: winning the title once has changed nothing unless RCB are ready to match that hunger all over again, because the rest of the league will now come at them harder.

"We worked really hard over the last two to thre...