The inaugural champions of the Indian Premier League (IPL) are taking on the five-time winners Chennai Super Kings in the third match of the IPL 2026 at the ACA Barsapara Stadium, Guwahati.
With a victory in this match, the five-time IPL Chennai Super Kings hope to get their season off to a strong start. They had a terrible season in 2025, placing tenth in the standings. RR, on the other hand, also finished in the second-last spot. With this match, both teams would like to start over.
RR vs CSK: Toss Update
The other captain Riyan Parag, Rajasthan Royals won the toss and opted to field first. This one was pretty easy, as there’s a good chance rain will stop the game. He also talked about what it’s like to be a full-time captain of a team that’s so successful.
MS Dhoni misses out with calf injury
Another major concern could be that team CSK’s former captain, MS Dhoni would not be able to play the first few of IPL 2026 matches for the team. He strained his calf during a training session before the tournament. The veteran’s absence was confirmed in an official announcement after the franchise reported it earlier. Dewald Brevis of South Africa misses this match through injury too. On the other hand, Kartik Sharma who is a new addition to CSK has made his debut.
RR vs CSK: What did the captains say?
Riyan Parag, RR captain
“We’re bowling first. There’s been a lot of rain here actually. So even though it is a red soil wicket, it’s going to be a little moisture. So we want to try and extract that in the first few overs and then see how we go back into the game. (On leading RR) It feels nice. It feels very overwhelming. I’ve been with this franchise for eight years now. And then seeing the transition that has happened from me being a 17-year-old to being here as captain, I feel the support has been incredible.”
Ruturaj Gaikwad, CSK captain
“It was a no-brainer to bowl first actually. The wicket has been under the covers for a long time now, with overcast conditions as well, so we would have loved to bowl first, but neverheless, we’ll look to start positively. (On having a lot of youth in the squad) Well, it was not something which we decided at the start of the cycle, but you saw that how the last year really went for us. And that is how we thought we’ll go into the auction with some strategy behind it, whatever options that are available, what are the best options that are available and buy them into the team and buy them into the culture and let’s hope that they go really well. So that was the thought process behind it and hopefully it will work.”
RR vs CSK: Playing 11s
Rajasthan Royals
Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Dhruv Jurel (wk), Riyan Parag (capt), Shimron Hetmyer, Ravindra Jadeja, Jofra Archer, Nandre Burger, Sandeep Sharma, Ravi Bishnoi, Brijesh Sharma
Impact Players: Donovan Ferreira, Lhuan-dre Pretorius, Ravi Singh, Sushant Mishra, Tushar Deshpande
Chennai Super Kings
Sanju Samson (WK), Ruturaj Gaikwad (C), Ayush Mhatre, Matt Short, Shivam Dube, Kartik Sharma, Jamie Overton, Noor Ahmad, Matt Henry, Anshul Kamboj, Khaleel Ahmed
Impact Players: Sarfaraz Khan, Prashant Veer, Rahul Chahar, Gurjapneet Singh, Ramakrishna Ghosh
