Rajasthan Royals skipper Riyan Parag won the toss and elected to bowl against Chennai Super Kings in their opening encounter of IPL 2026 at the Barsapara Cricket Stadium in Guwahati on Monday.
CSK skipper Ruturaj Gaikwad also said he would have preferred to bowl first as the match was taking place in overcast conditions following a spell of rain.
The match will see Sanju Samson and Ravindra Jadeja playing against their former franchises. Before the season, a trade between the two teams saw Samson move from RR to CSK while Jadeja and Sam Curran travelled in the opposite direction. Curran, however, will miss the tournament owing to injury.
MS Dhoni is missing an IPL game for the first time since 2019. The CSK icon is out for two weeks because of a calf strain.
The teams:
Rajasthan Royals (Playing XI): Yashasvi Jaiswal, Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, Riyan Parag(c), Dhruv Jurel(w), Shimron Hetmyer, Ravindra Jadeja, Jofra Archer, Nandre Burger, Sandeep Sharma, Ravi Bishnoi, Brijesh Sharma
Chennai Super Kings (Playing XI): Sanju Samson(w), Ruturaj Gaikwad(c), Ayush Mhatre, Matthew Short, Shivam Dube, Kartik Sharma, Jamie Overton, Noor Ahmad, Matt Henry, Anshul Kamboj, Khaleel Ahmed