2 min readUpdated: Apr 4, 2026 07:21 PM IST
Shubman Gill was ruled out of Gujarat Titans’ (GT) IPL 2026 clash against the Rajasthan Royals (RR) in Ahmedabad on Saturday. Stand-in captain Rashid Khan said that the 26-year-old was unavailable due to muscle spasms and hoped that he would return to action soon.
“We wanted to bowl first. Gill has a muscle spasm, hopefully he will be back soon,” Rashid said at the toss.
Jharkhand wicket-keeper batter Kumar Kushagra was handed a debut in Gill’s place.
“KK (Kumar Kushagra) is playing his first game and look forward to see him play. We played good cricket in the last game as well. Was a good game. We need to bring out 100% here,” Rashid added at the toss.
It was the second time on Saturday that a captain was unavailable for an IPL clash. Mumbai Indians captain Hardik Pandya was also ruled out of the match against Delhi Capitals due to illness, with Suryakumar Yadav leading in his absence.
RR captain Riyan Parag won the toss and elected to bat first. It was the first instance of a skipper opting to set a target in the current season.
Parag said that the inaugural champions would look to post a score of around 210 and rely on the bowlers to defend the score later in the evening.
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“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, like I said, I want us to assess the pitch, play through all conditions that the IPL offers to us, and be good at it,” he said at the toss.
