Rajasthan Royals (RR) won the toss and chose to bowl first in their IPL 2026 Match 16 against Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) at the Baraspara Cricket Stadium in Guwahati on Friday. RR also made a tweak to their playing group, with Brijesh Sharma replacing Tushar Deshpande. Bengaluru, meanwhile, reshuffled its seam resources by bringing back Josh Hazlewood for Jacob Duffy, a move aimed at adding more experience and control to the pace department.
RCB skipper Riyan Parag said the surface was expected to be on the drier side, but the weather could still leave some early moisture. He emphasised that his team intends to stick to the strategic plan they had prepared ahead of the tournament, describing their approach as clinical and purposeful. Parag also suggested that as long as the top-order openers keep delivering, he is comfortable with the workload being shared across the unit.
“We are going to be bowling first. It was supposed to be a dry wicket, but it has been raining, and there will be some moisture on this pitch. We would like to extract the most from the pitch,” Parag said.
Rajat Patidar added that the strong crowd presence is making the contest feel like a home game for Bengaluru. He also confirmed that Duffy had been left out, with Hazlewood coming into the XI, and described the Australia international as an experienced addition. However, right after Patidar spoke, rain returned and disrupted proceedings, slowing the momentum as it looked like conditions had improved.
“This is the first away game. Thanks to everyone. You are making us feel that it is a home crowd. We all love you. Unfortunately, Duffy misses out on this game. Josh Hazlewood is in the team in place of Duffy. Duffy also bowled brilliantly in the last two games. We know Josh is an experienced player. His presence will definitely put us in a good frame of mind,” Patidar said.
Playing XIs
Royal Challengers Bengaluru
- Virat Kohli
- Phil Salt
- Devdutt Padikkal
- Rajat Patidar (c)
- Jitesh Sharma (wk)
- Tim David
- Romario Shepherd
- Krunal Pandya
- Bhuvneshwar Kumar
- Abhinandan Singh
- Josh Hazlewood
- Impact substitute: Jacob Bethell
- Impact substitute: Rasikh Salam
- Impact substitute: Suyash Sharma
- Impact substitute: Venkatesh Iyer
- Impact substitute: Kanishk Chouhan
Rajasthan Royals
- Yashasvi Jaiswal
- Dhruv Jurel (wk)
- Riyan Parag (c)
- Shimron Hetmyer
- Donovan Ferreira
- Ravindra Jadeja
- Jofra Archer
- Nandre Burger
- Sandeep Sharma
- Ravi Bishnoi
- Brijesh Sharma
- Impact substitute: Shubham Dubey
- Impact substitute: Lhuan-dre Pretorius
- Impact substitute: Tushar Deshpande
- Impact substitute: Ravi Singh
- Impact substitute: Vaibhav Sooryavanshi
