IPL 2026: Sunrisers Hyderabad win the toss and elect to bowl first against RR

Pat Cummins and Riyan Parag (Pic: AFP)

Pat Cummins won the toss and elected to bowl first against the Rajasthan Royals at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium in Jaipur.

Pat Cummins returned to the SRH team and won the toss. The SRH captain was happy to bowl first.

We're going to have a bowl first. The wicket looks good, but we have to see what we need to chase down. (How are you feeling?) Still really fresh. It's been a little while, but I've had really good preparation, a couple of bowls over here. I haven't played a game for a while, so we'll see how we go. But the body feels awesome. We know the pitch really well in Hyderabad. I think the challenge when you go play away is trying to sense what a good score is, what short work or ball work. So I think it's the first game for this venue for the season, so it'll be a challenge for both teams. Yeah, I've come in for Madushanka and Hinge has come in Harsh Dubey." Cummins said.

Riyan Parag said that he was looking to bowl first too, but was content to have a bat first.

"We were looking for the same as well, but having said that, last couple of seasons, we've not really done well chasing. So I'm happy with defending as well. I think we played most of our cricket here, the majority of our cricket here. We know this wicket really well. We have had our camp right because the season started as well. Seems like a pretty good wicket. Maybe a little bit of dew coming in later on, but won't really play that much of a role. I feel the openers have done really well, but they can keep on doing well and hopefully we can pick up our slack. (Combination the same?) No, we're going for one instead of 3-2." Parag said.

Confirmed Playing XI for both teams:

Sunrisers Hyderabad (Playing XI): Abhishek Sharma, Ishan Kishan, Heinrich Klaasen, Salil Arora(w), Aniket Verma, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Pat Cummins(c), Shivang Kumar, Sakib Hussain, Praful Hinge, Eshan Malinga

Rajasthan Royals (Playing XI): Yashasvi Jaiswal, Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, Dhruv Jurel(w), Riyan Parag(c), Shimron Hetmyer, Donovan Ferreira, Ravindra Jadeja, Jofra Archer, Tushar Deshpande, Nandre Burger, Brijesh Sharma