JAIPUR: Gujarat Titans openers Shubman Gill and Sai Sudharsan kept their IPL 2026 momentum rolling as they set up another dominant start against Rajasthan Royals at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium. The pair delivered a fresh century opening partnership, taking their total to nine in the tournament and matching a landmark mark previously associated with Royal Challengers Bengaluru greats Virat Kohli and Chris Gayle.
Gill and Sudharsan’s record-setting opening stand
- Gill and Sudharsan produced yet another century partnership together, extending their run of big starts for Gujarat Titans.
- The opening duo reached the 100-run mark in 8.1 overs, carving out control over the Rajasthan bowling attack through aggressive batting and sharp running between the wickets.
- With this century stand, they equalled the overall IPL record for the most century partnerships by an opening pair, matching Kohli and Gayle’s tally of nine.
- In the list of second-most century opening stands by any pair in IPL tournament history, only Virat Kohli and AB de Villiers sit ahead with 10 century partnerships for RCB.
- The pair also matched the record for the most century partnerships for the opening wicket in IPL history, moving level with two other opening combinations on six century stands each.
Here are the key IPL century partnership benchmarks referenced by the latest effort from Gill and Sudharsan:
- Most century partnerships in IPL history (any wicket):
- 10 — Virat Kohli & AB de Villiers (RCB)
- 9 — Virat Kohli & Chris Gayle (RCB)
- 9 — Sai Sudharsan & Shubman Gill (GT)
- Most century stands for the opening wicket in IPL history:
- 6 — David Warner & Shikhar Dhawan (SRH)
- 6 — Abhishek Sharma & Travis Head (SRH)
- 6 — Shubman Gill & Sai Sudharsan (GT)
- 5 — David Warner & Jonny Bairstow (SRH)
- 5 — Faf du Plessis & Virat Kohli (RCB)
Build-up: toss, team news and changes
Earlier in the day, Rajasthan Royals’ stand-in captain Yashasvi Jaiswal won the toss and chose to bowl first against Gujarat Titans. Jaiswal took the leadership role in place of the regular skipper Riyan Parag, who was ruled out after sustaining a hamstring injury during Rajasthan’s previous match.
Gujarat Titans made one alteration to their playing XI, introducing Prasidh Krishna and replacing Manav Suthar. Rajasthan, meanwhile, brought in Shimron Hetmyer and Yash Raj Punja.
Playing XIs
Rajasthan Royals: Yashasvi Jaiswal (c), Dhruv Jurel (wk), Shimron Hetmyer, Donovan Ferreira, Ravindra Jadeja, Shubham Dubey, Dasun Shanaka, Jofra Archer, Tushar Deshpande, Brijesh Sharma, Yash Raj Punja.
Gujarat Titans: Shubman Gill (c), Sai Sudharsan, Jos Buttler (wk), Nishant Sindhu, Washington Sundar, Jason Holder, Rahul Tewatia, Rashid Khan, Arshad Khan, Kagiso Rabada, Mohammed Siraj.
