New Delhi: Chennai Super Kings The captain Rituraj Gaikwad won the toss and elected to field against Gujarat Titans in the IPL 2026 match at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad on Thursday. In a must-win clash and final group stage match for CSK, Rathoraj made two major changes to his playing XI against Gujarat Titans.Rituraj replaced Akil Hussain with Gurjapaneet Singh and added Matthew Short for Prashant Vir. Vir, who was bought by CSK for Rs 14.20 crore in the IPL 2026 auction, was dropped for the crucial clash.“We’re going to bowl first. Obviously the pitch has some speed and bounce and we want to take advantage of that early. So that’s the only reason we’re bowling first. (What’s the team’s combination?) We’ve got some changes. Obviously, under the circumstances, Aqeel unfortunately misses out. And thunder comes. And we played Matt Short in place of Prashant Vir,” Rituraj said.“(How did you regroup for that important clash?) Well, it’s about keeping it simple and trusting the process. I think we had a good fight in the last game as well and obviously didn’t get the result we wanted, but it’s all about coming out and changing and getting that W at the end of the day. But obviously, there’s a lot of things that he wants to make easy and we want to make sure we make it easy today.On the other hand, Gujarat Titans captain Shibman Gill made only one change, replacing Sai Kishore with Prasad Krishna. Gujarat Titans have already qualified for the playoffs.“We also wanted to bowl earlier, but not much here. We have one change. Prasad has come in for Sai Kishore. Hopefully we can maintain our intensity with the ball. The job is not done and hopefully it’s three good games from here,” Shubman said.Playing XI:Chennai Super Kings (Playing XI): Sanju Samson (W), Rutoraj Gaikwad, Arul Patel, Devald Brews, Shivam Dubey, Matthew Short, Anshul Kamboj, Noor Ahmed, Spencer Johnson, Mukesh Chaudhary, Gurjapaneet SinghGujarat Titans (Playing XI): Sai Sudharsan, Shibman Gill (capt), Jos Buttler (w), Nishant Sindhu, Washington Sundar, Jason Holder, Rashid Khan, Rahul Tiotia, Kagiso Rabada, Arshad Khan, Mohammad SirajGujarat Titans Impact Subs: Prasad Krishna, Anuj Rawat, Glenn Phillips, Kalvant Khajrulia, Kumar KshagraChennai Super Kings Impact Subs:Karthik Sharma, McNeil Noronha, Sarfraz Khan, Kuldeep Yadav, Aman Khan
Should CSK have made more changes to their playing XI for this crucial match?
