Royal Challengers Bengaluru have been forced to make a change to their playing XI against Gujarat Titans as Phil Salt has been injured. While Jacob Bethell has been named as his replacement by captain Rajat Patidar during the toss, the England star has been mentioned as an impact substitute, simply because RCB will be batting second. GT have made a couple of changes to their playing XI, with Jason Holder making his debut for the Titans while Manav Suthar returns to the line-up. RCB have won the toss and have decided to bowl first in their final league stage game at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru on Friday.
RCB vs GT playing XIs
Royal Challengers Bengaluru: Virat Kohli, Devdutt Padikkal, Rajat Patidar(c), Jitesh Sharma(w), Tim David, Romario Shepherd, Krunal Pandya, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Josh Hazlewood, Suyash Sharma, Rasikh Salam Dar
Impact Subs: Jacob Bethell, Jordan Cox, Mangesh Yadav, Vicky Ostwal, Venkatesh Iyer
Gujarat Titans: Sai Sudharsan, Shubman Gill(c), Jos Buttler(w), Washington Sundar, Shahrukh Khan, Jason Holder, Rahul Tewatia, Rashid Khan, Manav Suthar, Kagiso Rabada, Mohammed Siraj
Impact subs: Prasidh Krishna, Anuj Rawat, Glenn Phillips, Nishant Sindhu, Arshad Khan
Salt’s injury comes as a huge blow for RCB, as the England batter had managed to amass 202 runs from 6 matches at an average of 33.66 and had struck 2 fifties so far in IPL 2026. He will now be replaced by Devdutt Padikkal at the top of the order. Bethell is expected to be used as a batting option via the impact player option as the team is batting 2nd. The rest of the order largely remains unchanged as the defending champions have backed the XI from the previous game to do the job.
GT have finally decided to hand Jason Holder his debut for the team after he warmed the bench for all the games played so far. His addition comes as a boost to GT’s bowling and batting line-up, as he is no stranger to the IPL apart from being an accomplished all-rounder. Suthar is also back in the playing XI.
Prasidh Krishna, who is GT’s leading wicket-taker in the tournament, has been named as an impact player. It remains to be seen if he will be used or if Shubman Gill will be comfortable with Siraj, Holder, and Rabada, or if he will want to introduce another frontline pacer in the playing XI. Suthar replaces Glenn Phillips in the line-up.
