Burger, Archer, Jadeja wreck CSK

Toss: Rajasthan Royals choose to bowl vs Chennai Super Kings

Rajasthan Royals’ new captain Riyan Parag gained and tossed in entrance of his house crowd in Guwahati and opted to bowl towards Chennai Super Kings on a red-soil pitch that had spent appreciable time underneath the covers.

CSK captain Ruturaj Gaikwad mentioned that he would have most well-liked to bowl first as nicely, citing the overcast situations.

RR picked solely three abroad gamers of their bowl-first XI – Jorfra Archer, Nandre Burger and Shimron Hetmyer – and may herald Donovan Ferreira or Lhuhan-dre Pretorius as an Impact Sub once they chase later within the night. They additionally handed a T20 debut to uncapped Bengal seamer Brijesh Sharma, who impressed within the 2025 Bengal Pro T20 League.

CSK’s 4 abroad gamers had been Matt Henry, Noor Ahmad, Matt Short and Jamie Overton. With CSK depleted by accidents to each MS Dhoni and Dewald Brevis, CSK handed franchise debuts to Australia allrounder Matt Short and Rajasthan wicketkeeper-batter Kartik Sharma. In the public sale in December, CSK had spent a document INR 14.2 crore on Kartik. However, there was no room for his or her different INR 14.2 crore purchase – Prashant Veer – of their bat-first XI. In all, CSK had seven bowling choices of their bat-first XI, with Noor slotted in at No.8. If there is a batting collapse, they’ve the choice of bringing in Sarfaraz Khan as their Impact Player.

Having completed on the backside of the desk in IPL 2025, each CSK and RR are hoping to show issues round with new-look groups on this new season. Notably, that is the primary time CSK are taking part in a sport with out Dhoni or Suresh Raina.

Rajasthan Royals: 1 Yashasvi Jaiswal, 2 Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, 3 Riyan Parag(capt), 4 Dhruv Jurel(wk), 5 Shimron Hetmyer, 6 Ravindra Jadeja, 7 Jofra Archer, 8 Nandre Burger, 9 Sandeep Sharma, 10 Ravi Bishnoi, 11 Brijesh Sharma

Impact Subs: Donovan Ferreira, Lhuan-dre Pretorius, Ravi Singh, Sushant Mishra, Tushar Deshpande

Chennai Super Kings: 1 Sanju Samson(wk), 2 Ruturaj Gaikwad (capt), 3 Ayush Mhatre, 4 Matthew Short, 5 Shivam Dube, 6 Kartik Sharma, 7 Jamie Overton, 8 Noor Ahmad, 9 Matt Henry, 10 Anshul Kamboj, 11 Khaleel Ahmed

Impact Subs: Sarfaraz Khan, Prashant Veer, Rahul Chahar, Gurjapneet Singh, Ramakrishna Ghosh