Rajasthan Royals (RR) won the toss and elected to bat first in their Indian Premier League (IPL) 2026 second match against Gujarat Titans (GT) on Saturday at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad.
Gujarat Titans faced a setback as designated captain Shubman Gill was ruled out due to a muscle spasm. Stand-in captain Rashid Khan announced Gill’s unavailability at the toss.
Riyan Parag, after winning the toss, outlined the team’s plan, stating, “We are going to be batting first. We got to assess and adapt to different conditions. Hopefully we will put up a good score around 210 and defend it later on. I want it to be a team that plays in all conditions.” He confirmed two changes to the Rajasthan Royals side: Tushar Deshpande replaced Brijesh Sharma, and Shubham Dubey took the place of Ravi Bishnoi.
Rashid Khan expressed his preference to bowl first and wished for Gill’s swift recovery. He confirmed that Kumar Kushagra would replace Gill and highlighted the team’s commitment by saying, “We need to bring out 100% here.” Khan added, “We wanted to bowl first. Gill has a muscle spasm, hopefully he will be back soon. KK (Kumar Kushagra) is playing his first game and look forward to see him play. We played good cricket in the last game as well. Was a good game.”
Rajasthan Royals, led by Riyan Parag, come into this match following an impressive eight-wicket win over Chennai Super Kings (CSK), highlighted by Vaibhav Suryavanshi's 52 runs off 17 balls-the second-fastest fifty by an RR batter in IPL history-chasing a target of 128 in just 12.1 overs. They aim to maintain their winning momentum with a second victory of the season.
Gujarat Titans lost their opening match by three wickets to Punjab Kings. Batting first, GT posted 162 runs and challenged the opposition during the chase, but Cooper Connolly's unbeaten 72 secured the win for Punjab Kings.
Playing XIs:
Gujarat Titans: Kumar Kushagra, Sai Sudharsan, Jos Buttler (wicketkeeper), Glenn Phillips, Washington Sundar, Rahul Tewatia, Rashid Khan (captain), Kagiso Rabada, Ashok Sharma, Mohammed Siraj, Prasidh Krishna.
Impact substitutes: Shahrukh Khan, Jason Holder, Manav Suthar, Anuj Rawat, Jayant Yadav.
Rajasthan Royals: Yashasvi Jaiswal, Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, Dhruv Jurel (wicketkeeper), Riyan Parag (captain), Shimron Hetmyer, Donovan Ferreira, Ravindra Jadeja, Jofra Archer, Nandre Burger, Tushar Deshpande, Sandeep Sharma.
Impact substitutes: Ravi Bishnoi, Lhuan-dre Pretorius, Sushant Mishra, Brijesh Sharma, Ravi Singh.