Bengaluru, April 24 (IANS) Defending champions Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) won the toss and elected to bowl against Gujarat Titans (GT) in Match 34 of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2026 at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru, on Friday.

RCB opener Phil Salt has picked up an injury, as his countryman Jacob Bethell replaced him in the playing eleven. For GT, Jason Holder, Rahul Tewatia, and Manav Suthar come in for Prasidh Krishna, Glenn Philips, and Ashok Sharma.

RCB captain Rajat Patidar said, “It’s pretty obvious we want to bowl first. As we all know, chasing gives a sort of clarity about the wicket and the score. There’s one change. Salty got injured, and Bethell comes in.

On doing well at home, he said, “A great point that I like, we are assessing the wicket and the situation pretty well. Of course, there’s a lot of planning behind it. Whenever you come here to Chinnaswamy, it’s a good wicket to bat on. There’s no grass on it. It might be a bit tacky in the first innings.”

GT captain Shubman Gill said, “Not really. Generally, on this ground, teams have had success chasing. But it looks like a good wicket. Honestly, it’s about assessing the conditions quickly. If you can get a good Power-play, you can build on that. Just keep mounting on the good start.”

On losing their previous game, Gill said, “Games like that in tournaments like this can happen. But it’s about reminding us what has worked for us as a team and backing ourselves. We have a couple of changes. Jason Holder comes, and he is making his debut tonight. Manav also comes in.”

Playing XIs:

Gujarat Titans: Shubman Gill (c), B Sai Sudharsan, Jos Buttler (wk), Washington Sundar, Jason Holder, Rahul Tewatia, Shahrukh Khan, Rashid Khan, Manav Suthar, Kagiso Rabada, Mohammed Siraj.

Impact substitutes: Prasidh Krishna, Anuj Rawat, Glenn Phillips, Nishant Sindhu, Arshad Khan

Royal Challengers Bengaluru: Virat Kohli, Devdutt Padikkal, Rajat Patidar (c), Jitesh Sharma (wk), Tim David, Romario Shepherd, Krunal Pandya, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Josh Hazlewood, Suyash Sharma, Rasikh Salam.

Impact substitutes: Jacob Bethell, Jordan Cox, Mangesh Yadav, Vicky Ostwal, Venkatesh Iyer

–IANS

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