NEW DELHI: Chennai Super Kings captain Ruturaj Gaikwad won the toss and opted to field against Gujarat Titans in the IPL 2026 clash at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad on Thursday. In the must-win clash and final group-stage match for CSK, Ruturaj made two major changes to his playing XI against Gujarat Titans.Ruturaj included Gurjapneet Singh in place of Akeal Hosein and brought in Matthew Short for Prashant Veer. Veer, who was bought by CSK for a whopping Rs 14.20 crore at the IPL 2026 auction, was dropped for the crucial clash. “We’re gonna bowl first. Obviously there is some pace and bounce in the pitch and we want to exploit it early on. So that’s the only reason we are bowling first. (What is the team combination?) We’ve got a couple of changes. Obviously, according to the conditions, Akeal misses out unfortunately. And Gurjapneet comes in. And we got Matt Short playing in place of Prashant Veer,” Ruturaj said.“(How have you regrouped for this important clash?) Well, it is about keeping it simple and trusting the process. I think even the last game we gave a good fight and obviously didn’t get the result that we wanted, but it is all about coming up and turning up and getting that W at the end of the day. But obviously, there are a lot of things that unfold and we want to make sure that we keep it really simple and turn it up today,” he added.On the other hand, Gujarat Titans captain Shubman Gill made just one change, bringing in Prasidh Krishna in place of Sai Kishore. Gujarat Titans have already qualified for the playoffs.“We wanted to bowl first too, but not much due here. We have one change. Prasidh comes in place of Sai Kishore. Hopefully we keep our intensity with the ball. The job is not done and hopefully three good games from here,” Shubman said.Playing XIs:Chennai Super Kings (Playing XI): Sanju Samson(w), Ruturaj Gaikwad(c), Urvil Patel, Dewald Brevis, Shivam Dube, Matthew Short, Anshul Kamboj, Noor Ahmad, Spencer Johnson, Mukesh Choudhary, Gurjapneet SinghGujarat Titans (Playing XI): Sai Sudharsan, Shubman Gill(c), Jos Buttler(w), Nishant Sindhu, Washington Sundar, Jason Holder, Rashid Khan, Rahul Tewatia, Kagiso Rabada, Arshad Khan, Mohammed SirajGujarat Titans Impact Subs: Prasidh Krishna, Anuj Rawat, Glenn Phillips, Kulwant Khejroliya, Kumar KushagraChennai Super Kings Impact Subs: Kartik Sharma, Macneil Noronha, Sarfaraz Khan, Kuldip Yadav, Aman Khan
