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Bengaluru: Royal Challengers Bengaluru director of cricket Mo Bobat underlined his team’s resolve to maintain its aggressive brand of cricket in IPL 2026, and lauded skipper Rajat Patidar for fully imbibing the doctrine.

Under Patidar, RCB had won their maiden IPL title last year, and have launched a strong campaign this year winning four out of six matches to be perched on the third slot in the table.

“I want us to play aggressive cricket. I want us to be brave. Brave when those moments really require bravery. When the game is on the line or things get a little bit difficult, if we're aggressive and brave through every phase, I think we'll play the way we want to play,” said Bobat on the eve of the game against Gujarat Titans.

In that context, Bobat said Patidar has stuck to the team’s line of thinking, while moving pieces on the field aggressively.

“We plan with aggressive tactics as our preference. But Rajat has to make his own decisions out there and he's very good at that and one of Rajat's biggest strengths is he's incredibly calm.

“When it gets a little bit chaotic, he's quite good at just remaining calm and just sticking to the things that he thought he wanted to do. With the bat, that means that he's quite good at leading from the front.

“In the field, he's always trying to take wickets, which is great. That is part of our identities, the way we want to play and he's a good fit for that,” he added.

This year, the Chinnaswamy pitch has been an admixture of placid and tacky, but Bobat did not attach too much importance to it.

“We've got a BCCI curator here who's leading the pitch preparation, so to put it simply, we don't have a huge amount of influence on it. It's a home venue in terms of city and stadium, but by surface, we exert no influence.

“It's been a fairly different wicket, I suppose, over the last two and a half years that I've been involved. We feel like we've got a decent grasp of it. It isn't always the same, but we feel like we've got a decent grasp of it. For us, it doesn't change the way we prepare for games, though,” he said.

Meanwhile, Vikram Solanki, Bobat’s counterpart at the Gujarat Titans, said the heavy 99-run defeat to Mumbai Indians in their previous game has not dented their confidence.

“I don't think we'll suddenly change, given, you know, one or two results. We'll remain consistent in the way we go about our batting and our bowling and our cricket altogether,” Solanki said in the pre-match press conference.

“We trust in a method, in a formula, we trust in the players that we have in delivering that method and that formula,” he added.

Middle-order batter Rahul Tewatia has not been firing in IPL 2026, but Solanki said it was just a matter of time before the left-hander finds his groove.

“Rahul has been an exceptional player for us, there is no question about that. I do quite fondly recall some of his performances. So that sort of thing, as it just put more of a smile to your face, it does to ours.

“And we must just try and instil confidence in all of our players, and we do exactly that,” he added.