Ahmedabad: Defending champions Royal Challengers Bengaluru have won the toss and elect to bowl first against Gujarat Titans in the high-stakes IPL 2026 final at the Narendra Modi Stadium on Sunday.
Both teams are eyeing their second IPL title and join a select club of teams with multiple championships wins after Mumbai Indians, Chennai Super Kings and Kolkata Knight Riders. RCB won IPL 2025 in Ahmedabad, while GT won the title in 2022 at the same venue which is also their home ground.
RCB have an opportunity to join MI and CSK as the only teams to successfully defend their IPL title, especially with the winner of Qualifier 1 winning the trophy last eight times. GT, meanwhile, are playing their third game at a third venue in six days, and reached Ahmedabad only on Saturday night due to inclement weather.
After winning the toss, RCB skipper Rajat Patidar said their playing eleven is unchanged from the Qualifier 1 win over GT in Dharamshala. “It’s a pretty good wicket. The ball will come nicely on the bat, but to be honest, it will not change in the 40 overs. So we’ll try to get them out as early as possible.
“A lot of memories last year, but I think it was in 2025. It’s 2026. We have to do our best to win this match. That’s important, to keep yourself in the present, not to be too much far ahead. Let’s control the controllables, that’s it.
“We always love to play in this stadium because of the crowd, the way they came and especially the RCB supporters – 12th man army. They came in every stadium and supported us,” he said.
GT captain Shubman Gill said he would have liked to bat first if he won the toss, adding that left-arm seam bowling all-rounder Arshad Khan replaces R Sai Kishore in the playing eleven. While Venkatesh Iyer can be the likely Impact Player for RCB, Prasidh Krishna could be the GT’s pick for being the Impact substitute.
“We would have batted first. Typical wicket, third match we are playing here. There could be some movement for the fast bowlers in the first three overs. One of the biggest stadiums in the world. We’ve got one change,” he said.
Sunday’s final will be played on pitch number six, which has equidistant square boundaries off 66 metres. It’s a mixed-soil pitch, which Aaron Finch in the pitch report felt will be good for batting, though it’s not a belter. Ian Bishop reckoned the high percentage of balls on a good length from pacers could be seen, and the preference of hit-the-deck bowlers to go good or short of good length may increase.
Playing XIs:
Gujarat Titans: Shubman Gill (captain), B Sai Sudharsan, Jos Buttler (wk), Jason Holder, Washington Sundar, Rahul Tewatia, Rashid Khan, Nishant Sindhu, Kagiso Rabada, Arshad Khan, and Mohammed Siraj
Impact Substitutes: Prasidh Krishna, Glenn Phillips, Anuj Rawat, Kumar Kushagra, and R Sai Kishore
Royal Challengers Bengaluru: Virat Kohli, Devdutt Padikkal, Rajat Patidar (captain), Jitesh Sharma (wk), Tim David, Krunal Pandya, Romario Shepherd, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Jacob Duffy, Josh Hazlewood, and Rasikh Salam Dar
Impact Substitutes: Venkatesh Iyer, Kanishk Chohan, Swapnil Singh, Abhinandan Singh, and Jordan Cox
(IANS)
