Ahmedabad, April 4 – Rashid Khan will lead the Gujarat Titans in the absence of regular captain Shubman Gill, who is resting due to a muscle spasm, as the Rajasthan Royals won the toss and chose to bat in the ninth match of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2026 at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad on Saturday.
GT will be eager to open their account this season after narrowly losing their first match against the Punjab Kings. Despite scoring a respectable 162/6, they were unable to defend it, as the bowlers failed to maintain their composure in the final stages, allowing Punjab to chase the target with five balls to spare.
Meanwhile, RR came into the match brimming with confidence after a dominant victory over Chennai Super Kings in Guwahati. Delivering a complete performance, they dismissed CSK for just 127 before easily wrapping up the chase in 13 overs. Jofra Archer and Nandre Burger led the bowling attack, while young Vaibhav Suryavanshi impressed with a brilliant fifty.
Looking back at past encounters, GT have generally had the upper hand in this rivalry, winning six of the eight matches played between the two teams. RR have managed two victories, including their most recent meeting in April 2025. Notably, the Titans also won when the two sides first faced off in April 2022, making this an interesting match to watch.
Winning the toss, RR captain Riyan Parag said, "We are batting first. We need to assess and adapt to different conditions. Hopefully, we will score around 210 and defend it. We want to be a team that can play in all conditions. I want it to be a flexible team. We don't want to play one style of cricket. We don't want to be a team that only scores or bowls for 200 or 250 runs. I think, like I said, I want us to assess the pitch, play through all the conditions that the IPL offers, and be good at it. So that's the message. Two changes. Tushar Deshpande comes in for Brijesh, and Shubham Dubey comes in for Bishnoi."
Meanwhile, GT's stand-in captain Rashid Khan said, "We also wanted to bowl first. The wicket is fresh, and I think there will be some help for the bowlers initially, but we are happy with the toss. Gill has a muscle spasm, hopefully he will be back soon. KK (Kumar Kushagra) is playing his first game, and I look forward to seeing him play. I think we played good cricket (in the last game). I feel that in the last game, it was a close game, but we need to improve our bowling, and also our batting. We discussed this a lot in the meetings, and we just need to bring our best here and give 100%. So, I think we played really well in the last game, but we take the positives from it and keep improving our skills."
Playing XIs:
Rajasthan Royals: Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Dhruv Jurel (wk), Riyan Parag (c), Shimron Hetmyer, Donovan Ferreira, Ravindra Jadeja, Jofra Archer, Nandre Burger, Tushar Deshpande, Sandeep Sharma
Impact Substitutes: 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 (c), Kagiso Rabada, Prasidh Krishna, Mohammed Siraj, Ashok Sharma
Impact Substitutes: Shahrukh Khan, Jason Holder, Manav Suthar, Anuj Rawat, Jayant Yadav