Bhuvneshwar Kumar was absent from Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB)'s pre-final training in Ahmedabad on the eve of the IPL 2026 final against Gujarat Titans. The man who has bowled the most overs and taken the most wickets for the team decided to prioritise rest and recovery. It will be his fifth IPL final, and his second with RCB. And few players in this set-up understand the weight of an IPL final like Bhuvneshwar has.
In 2016, Bhuvneshwar inflicted one of RCB's biggest heartbreaks. In that year's final, they were 114 without loss in the 11th over. Chris Gayle was at his marauding best. Virat Kohli was in the midst of a season so extraordinary that even by today's standards it feels almost fictional. Waiting in the shed were AB de Villiers and Shane Watson.
Their chase of 209 from there should have been straightforward. The holy trinity of Gayle, Kohli and de Villiers, who had carried the franchise for half a decade, stood on the verge of becoming first-time champions. But Bhuvneshwar denied them.
The scorecard won't fully reflect his impact that night at the Chinnaswamy Stadium. Bhuvneshwar finished with figures of 4-0-25-0, but he controlled the game's most important moments in the death overs. When RCB needed somebody to miss their yorker by an inch, Bhuvneshwar kept delivering them with precision. Alongside Mustafizur Rahman, he shut down all possible escape routes.
A decade later, Bhuvneshwar finds himself back in a second straight IPL final. He helped deliver a title last year, and, like most in the squad, is aiming to do the double - not least his former India and RCB skipper Kohli. The two were teenagers when first signed by RCB - Kohli in 2008 and Bhuvneshwar in 2009 - but their career arcs couldn't have been more contrasting.
Bhuvneshwar spends more time doing strength and conditioning work than playing matches between IPLs. The reduced workload may well have extended his career because he's able to put in a lot more work on his body than he could while regularly playing for India. The result has been a renaissance like no other. While everyone's talking about a 15-year-old wonder kid and how long before he gets elevated to the national team, there are also murmurs that at 36, Bhuvneshwar, who last played for India in 2022, isn't too old to make a comeback.
A significant factor in his resurgence has been Josh Hazlewood. Together, they have formed one of the tournament's most effective new-ball pairings. Hazlewood recently compared bowling alongside Bhuvneshwar to operating with Pat Cummins and Mitchell Starc for Australia. There couldn't have been a bigger compliment.
Hazlewood was talking about how they feed off each other. Delhi Capitals experienced this at the Arun Jaitley Stadium, where Bhuvneshwar got that old banana swing back and left their top order in a mess at 8 for 6. At the other end, Hazlewood shut the door as DC crashed to 75 all out. Such instances haven't been as frequent as in 2025, but this cocktail has often had the opponents on their toes, like they had GT in Qualifier 1 in Dharamsala this year.
Mumbai Indians (MI) found Bhuvneshwar equally difficult to negotiate on a two-paced Raipur surface. Even at Chinnaswamy, perhaps the least forgiving venue in the league for seam bowlers, he has often looked one step ahead of the batters, like Sunrisers Hyderabad found out on the opening night, as figures of 4-0-31-1 suggest in a game where over 400 runs were scored.
Bhuvneshwar's impact has gone beyond his bowling spells. He has played the perfect mentor to the younger crop of fast bowlers, notably Rasikh Salam, Abhinandan Singh and Mangesh Yadav. Even the team's net bowlers are often by his side, and Bhuvneshwar has been all too happy to impart some wisdom even amid the frenetic nature of IPL training days.
Then there have been other moments too, like the six he hit in the final over to help RCB to a thrilling win over MI in Raipur. After all these years, after all those overs and wickets, Bhuvneshwar is still discovering firsts - a fact that even astonished him. He joked recently that he is ageing like fine wine. Looking at his season, it is difficult to disagree.
And so he'll arrive on Sunday night at the Narendra Modi Stadium entrusted with protecting RCB's dream, alongside another who spent that evening in May 2016 watching his own dream slip away, thanks in no small measure to Bhuvneshwar.
Kohli was already a superstar by then, but that season elevated him into something else entirely. The 973 runs remain one of the IPL's most staggering achievements, produced while he batted through pain, carried injuries, and, at times, seemed determined to drag RCB to the title through sheer force of will.
However, unlike Bhuvneshwar, whose story is one of reinvention, Kohli's is one of evolution. At 37, he is no longer burdened by the responsibilities that once consumed him. The captaincy belongs to Rajat Patidar. The major strategic calls sit with Andy Flower, Mo Bobat and Dinesh Karthik. The endless leadership obligations that accompanied every IPL season for more than a decade are long gone. But that hasn't diminished Kohli's influence.
He remains the franchise's emotional centre, and in many ways, one of its biggest commercial engines. It is impossible to separate RCB's rise as a sporting brand from Kohli's rise as a sporting icon. For nearly two decades, the two have grown in parallel, each complementing the other's stature. To think of RCB is to think of Kohli. To think of Kohli is to think of RCB.
Yet through it all, the intensity has remained the same. This season, Kohli has scored his runs at a faster rate than ever before. He has attacked the powerplay with intent, adapted once again to the demands of a changing format, and continued to evolve. There have been no signs of slowing down.
On Friday, two days before the IPL 2026 final, he was among the most boistorous at training. He had a specific request for the net bowlers: to attack his body by going hard lengths. The objective was clear: he wanted to rehearse the pull and that trademark swivel-flick behind square by targeting the longer leg-side pockets. And a couple of those strokes evoked memories of that unforgettable night against Haris Rauf and Pakistan in Melbourne four years ago.
Off the field, Kohli's celebrations remain unmistakably Kohli. The clenched fists. The stare. The roar. Yet there is also a noticeable lightness about him. Team-mates speak of a calmer presence around the group. While he is still consulted on major decisions and his opinion still carries immense weight, there is an ease that comes from knowing the franchise no longer rests solely on his shoulders.
A decade ago, Kohli stood at the centre of RCB's hopes. On Sunday night in Ahmedabad, he will stand there again. Only this time, unlike in 2016, he has an entire franchise that knows what winning looks like. With a bunch who feed off each other, and don't necessarily depend on just their superstar.
And therein lies the difference.