Rajasthan Royals won the toss and Riyan Parag became the first IPL captain this season to choose to bat first. Usually teams like to chase in T20, and in Ahmedabad as well. Gujarat Titans had some big news to reveal at the toss with Shubman Gill sitting out of the game with a muscle spasm.
Rashid Khan captains GT instead. Kumar Kushagra, 21, has been brought in place of Gill. He made his Titans debut having played four games for Delhi Capitals in 2024. Broadcast visuals showed Gill being bandaged around the shoulder and the neck area. Gill had suffered neck spasms during the 2025-26 home Test season. It is unclear if that injury has flared up again.
RR have made a couple of changes. Parag said Tushar Deshpande was coming in for Brijesh Sharma and Shubham Dubey for Ravi Bishnoi. Though it is possible Bishnoi is the one that comes in as Impact sub when RR bowl. RR won their opening game of the season against CSK. GT lost their opening game of the season to Punjab Kings.
Rajasthan Royals: Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Dhruv Jurel (wk), Riyan Parag (capt), Shimron Hetmyer, Donovan Ferreira, Ravindra Jadeja, Jofra Archer, Nandre Burger, Tushar Deshpande, Sandeep Sharma
RR bench: Ravi Singh, Lhuan-dre Pretorius, Shubham Dubey, Brijesh Sharma, Ravi Bishnoi
Gujarat Titans: Kumar Kushagra, B Sai Sudharsan, Jos Buttler (wk), Washington Sundar, Glenn Phillips, Rahul Tewatia, Rashid Khan (capt), Kagiso Rabada, Prasidh Krishna, Mohammed Siraj, Ashok Sharma
GT bench: Shahrukh Khan, Jason Holder, Manav Suthar, Anuj Rawat, Jayant Yadav
