Kumar Kushagra replaced Gujarat Titans captain Shubman Gill in the team’s IPL 2026 clash against Rajasthan Royals at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad on Saturday, April 4. Kushagra came in as Gill missed out due to his muscle spasm, stand-in captain Rashid Khan revealed at the toss.ย
Kushagra, the Jharkhand batter, now makes his debut for GT, who have made one change for the clash after being asked to bowl first. “Well, we wanted to bowl first as well. Fresh wicket and I feel like there will be some help for the bowlers initially, but we are quite happy with the toss so far. Gill has got a bit of a muscle spasm, hopefully he will be back soon. KK (Kumar Kushagra) is playing his first game and looks forward to seeing him play,” Rashid said at the toss.
Who is Kushagra? Know about him here
Kumar Kushagra is a wicketkeeper-batter from Jharkhand. He was picked by GT ahead of IPL 2025 for Rs 65 lakh after being in the Delhi Capitals squad in 2024, when he was bought by them for Rs 7.2 crore. He had a forgettable run with DC as he made just three runs in three innings for them in 2024 and was released thereafter.
However, he had a stellar Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy in 2025 when he was a vital cog in his team winning the title under Ishan Kishan. Kushagra was his team’s second-highest run-scorer as he made 422 runs in 10 innings with four fifty-plus knocks. The wicketkeeper batter was also one of the stars of the final, having made 81 runs off just 38 balls, while captain Kishan made 101 from 49 balls against Haryana.ย
Coming back to the toss, RR captain Riyan Parag opted to bat first and made two changes to his team. “We 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. I think, as I said, I want us to assess the pitch, play through all conditions that the IPL offers to us, and be good at it. So I think that’s the message. Two changes. Tushar Deshpande comes in for Brijesh, and Shubham Dubey comes in for Bishnoi,” Parag said at the toss.
Rajasthan Royals (Playing XI): Yashasvi Jaiswal, Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, Dhruv Jurel(w), 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(w), Glenn Phillips, Washington Sundar, Rahul Tewatia, Rashid Khan(c), Kagiso Rabada, Ashok Sharma, Mohammed Siraj, Prasidh Krishna