Gujarat Titans captain Shubman Gill missed out on the high-voltage clash against Rajasthan Royals at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad. In his absence, Rashid Khan took over the charge and shared that the India opener is currently dealing with a muscle spasm but expects him to be back into the side soon. Kumar Kushagra, who impressed in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy has replaced Gill in the playing XI.
โWe wanted to bowl first. Gill has a muscle spasm; hopefully, he will be back soon. Kumar is playing his first game and look forward to see him play,โ Rashid said after the toss.
Rajasthan win toss, elect to bat
Rajasthan have won the toss and elected to bat first in Ahmedabad. Explaining the reason behind the move, captain Riyan Parag explained that the goal is to assess the conditions and put up a strong total on the board and let the bowlers control the game afterwards.
โWe are going to be batting first. We got to assess and adapt to different conditions. Hopefully we will put up a good score around 210 and defend it later on. We want to be a team that can play in all conditions. I want it to be a team that is flexible. We don’t want to play one brand of cricket. We don’t want to be a team that only scores or bowls for 200 runs or 250 runs,โ Parag said.
Rajasthan, in the meantime, have made one change to their squad as Tushar Deshpande is back in the squad, replacing Ravi Bishnoi. However, the star spinner is part of the Impact Player list and could feature in the second innings.ย
Rajasthan Royals (Playing XI): Yashasvi Jaiswal, Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, Dhruv Jurel (wk), Riyan Parag (c), Shimron Hetmyer, Donovan Ferreira, Ravindra Jadeja, Jofra Archer, Nandre Burger, Tushar Deshpande, Sandeep Sharma
Gujarat Titans (Playing XI): Kumar Kushagra, Sai Sudharsan, Jos Buttler (wk), Glenn Phillips, Washington Sundar, Rahul Tewatia, Rashid Khan (c), Kagiso Rabada, Ashok Sharma, Mohammed Siraj, Prasidh Krishna
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