The finalists of the debut season in 2008 – Rajasthan Royals and Chennai Super Kings – lock horns, this time in their IPL 2026 opening game in Guwahati on March 30. RR won the toss and decided to bowl first in the contest, with Riyan Parag explaining that rain played a huge part behind making the move.
CSK have decided to go with Matthew Short, Jamie Overton, Matt Henry and Noor Ahmad their overseas players in the playing XI for the first game. Meanwhile, RR have named Nandre Burger, Jofra Archer, Donovan Ferreira and Shimron Hetmyer as their overseas stars in the line-up.
RR vs CSK playing XIs
Rajasthan Royals: Yashasvi Jaiswal, Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, Riyan Parag(c), Dhruv Jurel(w), Shimron Hetmyer, Ravindra Jadeja, Jofra Archer, Nandre Burger, Sandeep Sharma, Ravi Bishnoi, Brijesh Sharma
Impact players: Donovan Ferreira, Lhuan-dre Pretorius, Ravi Singh, Sushant Mishra, Tushar Deshpande
Chennai Super Kings: Sanju Samson(w), Ruturaj Gaikwad(c), Ayush Mhatre, Matthew Short, Shivam Dube, Kartik Sharma, Jamie Overton, Noor Ahmad, Matt Henry, Anshul Kamboj, Khaleel Ahmed
Impact players: Sarfaraz Khan, Prashanth Veer, Rahul Chahar, Gurjapneet Singh, Ramakrishna Ghosh
For RR, captain Parag will be batting at number 3 while Jurel has been slotted at number 4. Jadeja, who will be playing against his ex-team, will bat at number 6. Archer will spearhead the pace department along with Sharma and Burger.
CSK have decided to slot Mhatre at number 3 after allowing him to open the innings in his debut season last year. This means, Urvil Patel will have to warm the bench and isn’t a part of the impact players list either. Rs 14.20 crore buy Kartik Shama has found a place in the playing XI while Prashant Veer is a part of the impact players list for CSK.
Sanju Samson will keep wickets for CSK in the absence of MS Dhoni.
RR vs CSK squads
Chennai uper Kings: Sanju Samson(w), Ayush Mhatre, Ruturaj Gaikwad(c), Urvil Patel, Matthew Short, Shivam Dube, Jamie Overton, Noor Ahmad, Khaleel Ahmed, Matt Henry, Anshul Kamboj, Akeal Hosein, Sarfaraz Khan, MS Dhoni, Dewald Brevis, Shreyas Gopal, Rahul Chahar, Spencer Johnson, Mukesh Choudhary, Aman Khan, Gurjapneet Singh, Zakary Foulkes, Ramakrishna Ghosh, Kartik Sharma, Prashant Veer
Rajasthan Royals: Yashasvi Jaiswal, Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, Riyan Parag(c), Dhruv Jurel(w), Shimron Hetmyer, Dasun Shanaka, Ravindra Jadeja, Jofra Archer, Sandeep Sharma, Ravi Bishnoi, Adam Milne, Yudhvir Singh Charak, Tushar Deshpande, Shubham Dubey, Nandre Burger, Kuldeep Sen, Sushant Mishra, Donovan Ferreira, Kwena Maphaka, Lhuan-dre Pretorius, Vignesh Puthur, Ravi Singh, Aman Rao Perala, Brijesh Sharma
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