Kamal Ghorui
NEW DELHI: Australia pacer Josh Hazlewood’s return to the Royal Challengers Bengaluru playing XI after an injury lay-off comes as a major boost to their pace attack.Rain played a part ahead of the IPL 2026 clash between Rajasthan Royals and Royal Challengers Bengaluru in Guwahati, delaying the toss as covers came on due to a passing drizzle. However, conditions improved later, allowing play to resume with a delayed start. The toss was pushed to 8:00 PM IST, with the match beginning at 8:15 PM, which, however, did come to fruition after rain returned immediately after the toss.
Rajasthan Royals skipper Riyan Parag won the toss and opted to field, citing moisture on the pitch after recent rain. RCB captain Rajat Patidar confirmed a key change, bringing back experienced pacer Josh Hazlewood in place of Duffy. “Duffy also bowled brilliantly in the last game. But everyone knows Josh is an experienced player, specialist. But I think his presence will definitely put us in a good frame of mind,” he said at the toss.Parag stressed the importance of staying focused despite past results. “All the three games, that’s in the past. Today we’ve got to perform. If we don’t, we lose two points and we don’t want to do that,” he said, while confirming Brijesh Sharma’s inclusion in place of Tushar Deshpande.With both teams in strong form, the contest promises to be a close one, especially with RCB’s pace attack up against RR’s aggressive batting lineup led by Yashasvi Jaiswal.Playing XIs: Rajasthan Royals (Playing XI): Yashasvi Jaiswal, Dhruv Jurel (wk), Riyan Parag (c), Shimron Hetmyer, Donovan Ferreira, Ravindra Jadeja, Jofra Archer, Nandre Burger, Sandeep Sharma, Ravi Bishnoi, Brijesh SharmaRoyal Challengers Bengaluru (Playing XI): Virat Kohli, Philip Salt, Devdutt Padikkal, Rajat Patidar (c), Jitesh Sharma (wk), Tim David, Romario Shepherd, Krunal Pandya, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Abhinandan Singh, Josh HazlewoodImpact Subs:
- RCB: Suyash Sharma, Jacob Bethell, Rasikh Salam Dar, Kanishk Chouhan, Venkatesh Iyer
- RR: Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, Lhuan-dre Pretorius, Ravi Singh, Shubham Dubey, Tushar Deshpa
