IPL 2026, RR vs CSK – RR choose to bowl; CSK hand debut to Kartik Sharma

Toss Rajasthan Royals choose to bowl vs Chennai Super Kings

Rajasthan Royals’ new captain Riyan Parag won and toss in front of his home crowd in Guwahati and opted to bowl against Chennai Super Kings on a red-soil pitch that had spent considerable time under the covers.

CSK captain Ruturaj Gaikwad said he would have preferred to bowl first as well, citing the overcast conditions.

RR picked only three overseas players in their bowl-first XI – Jorfra Archer, Nandre Burger and Shimron Hetmyer – and can bring in Donovan Ferreira or Lhuan-dre Pretorius as an Impact Player when they chase later in the evening. They also handed a T20 debut to uncapped Bengal seamer Brijesh Sharma, who impressed in the 2025 Bengal Pro T20 League.

CSK’s four overseas players were Matt Henry, Noor Ahmad, Matt Short and Jamie Overton. With CSK depleted by injuries to both MS Dhoni and Dewald Brevis, CSK handed franchise debuts to Australia allrounder Short and Rajasthan wicketkeeper-batter Kartik Sharma. In the auction in December, CSK had spent a record INR 14.2 crore on Kartik. However, there was no room for their other INR 14.2 crore buy – Prashant Veer – in their bat-first XI.

In all, CSK had seven bowling options in their bat-first XI, with Noor slotted in at No. 8. If there’s a batting collapse, they have the option of bringing in Sarfaraz Khan as their Impact Player.

Having finished at the bottom of the table in IPL 2025, both CSK and RR are hoping to turn things around with new-look teams in this new season.

Rajasthan Royals: 1 Yashasvi Jaiswal, 2 Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, 3 Riyan Parag (capt), 4 Dhruv Jurel (wk), 5 Shimron Hetmyer, 6 Ravindra Jadeja, 7 Jofra Archer, 8 Nandre Burger, 9 Sandeep Sharma, 10 Ravi Bishnoi, 11 Brijesh Sharma

Impact Subs: Donovan Ferreira, Lhuan-dre Pretorius, Ravi Singh, Sushant Mishra, Tushar Deshpande

Chennai Super Kings: 1 Sanju Samson (wk), 2 Ruturaj Gaikwad (capt), 3 Ayush Mhatre, 4 Matthew Short, 5 Shivam Dube, 6 Kartik Sharma, 7 Jamie Overton, 8 Noor Ahmad, 9 Matt Henry, 10 Anshul Kamboj, 11 Khaleel Ahmed

Impact Subs: Sarfaraz Khan, Prashant Veer, Rahul Chahar, Gurjapneet Singh, Ramakrishna Ghosh

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