In a surprising turn of events, Yashasvi Jaiswal is leading the Rajasthan Royals (RR) in place of Riyan Parag in their IPL 2026 clash against Shubman Gill's Gujarat Titans (GT) on Saturday, May 9 at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium in Jaipur.
Why Riyan Parag is not playing today against Gujarat Titans?
At the toss, Yashasvi Jaiswal stepped on the field in place of Riyan Parag which was a surprise in the first place. However, Jaiswal revealed that Parag endured a hamstring injury in RR's last game against Delhi Daredevils, which forced him to sit on the sidelines.
"We are going to bowl first. I think the wicket is pretty good and we want to chase it. Riyan pulled his hamstring last game, so I feel he'll be coming back soon," said Jaiswal at the toss.
Coming back to the game, RR's stand-in captain Jaiswal won the toss and opted to bowl first against Gujarat Titans, with two changes in the lineup as Shimron Hetmyer and Yash Raj Punja came back.
"Shimron Hetmyer comes in and Yash Raj Punja comes in. That's the two guys who are coming in. I'm really excited, looking forward to the game," said Jaiswal.
Rajasthan Playing XI: Yashasvi Jaiswal(c), Dhruv Jurel(w), Shimron Hetmyer, Donovan Ferreira, Ravindra Jadeja, Shubham Dubey, Dasun Shanaka, Jofra Archer, Tushar Deshpande, Brijesh Sharma, Yash Raj Punja'
Rajasthan Royals Impact subs: Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, Adam Milne, Ravi Singh, Sushant Mishra, Ravi Bishnoi
Gujarat Titans Playing XI: Shubman Gill(c), Sai Sudharsan, Jos Buttler(w), Nishant Sindhu, Washington Sundar, Jason Holder, Rahul Tewatia, Rashid Khan, Arshad Khan, Kagiso Rabada, Mohammed Siraj
Gujarat Titans Impact Subs: Prasidh Krishna, Glenn Phillips, Anuj Rawat, Ravisrinivasan Sai Kishore, Kumar Kushagra