No Shubman Gill for GT’s First Home Game: New Captain Revealed

Gujarat Titans and Rajasthan Royals are playing their 2nd match of the ongoing Indian Premier League (IPL) 2026 season. The match is being hosted by the biggest cricket stadium in the world, the Narendra Modi Stadium in Gujarat.

RR skipper Riyan Parag won the toss and opted to bat first. However, the fans were surprised to see Rashid Khan come forward for the toss instead of the regular captain Shubman Gill. Let's find out why Gill is not playing this important match.

Why Shubman Gill is Not Playing Today Against RR?

GT skipper Shubman Gill is not playing the 9th match of the tournament. The stand-in skipper Rashid Khan revealed the reason behind his absence and said that Gill has a muscle spasm. The team management has picked Kumar Kushagra as Shubman Gill replacement who will be making his debut for the franchise.

The absence of Gill, one of the best batsmen in IPL, is likely to affect Titans. Not only as the captain, Gill has been a prolific run-scorer for Gujarat Titans over the years and also has an excellent record at this venue.

In his absence, Jharkhand wicketkeeper-batter Kumar Kushagra will open the batting alongside Sai Sudharsan at the top. Kushagra has been in terrific form in domestic cricket lately and the GT vs RR IPL 2026 match is an excellent opportunity for him to make a case in the upcoming matches.

Who is the New GT Captain?

As mentioned above, Rashid Khan is GT new captain, who will be leading the side in Gill’s absence. Being one of the best T20 bowlers in the world, Rashid remains an integral part of Gujarat Titans set-up The Afghanistan star might also lead the side in the upcoming matches as well, only if Gill doesn’t recover on time.

Rashid has loads of experience of being a captain as he has already led Afghanistan in the shortest format across two T20 World Cups (2024 and 2026). Adding to it, Rashid is also the youngest captain in Test history. He was GT's vice-captain earlier as well when Hardik Pandya was the captain.

Meanwhile, Gujarat Titans lead the overall RR vs GT H2H record against Royals. However, Rajasthan Royals will start the match as favorites as they have the winning momentum with them.