Shubman Gill’s Gujarat Titans (GT) won the toss in Qualifier 1 and asked Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) to bat first in Dharamsala where both the night games this year have been won by the chasing side. Also the two matches between these two sides this year have been won by the team batting second.

RCB were still without Phil Salt, their first-choice opener with Virat Kohli, who sustained a hand injury mid-tournament. Even though he was back from England, Salt wasn’t yet brought into the XI or the bench. Venkatesh Iyer was going to open in his absence.

RCB made an interesting change by bringing in Jacob Duffy for Romario Shepherd in their bat-first XI. That left them an option of using Shepherd as the Impact Player if needed, but also to introduce legspinner Suyash Sharma into the XI in case Shepherd was not needed to bat.

GT made a late change by bringing in Kulwant Khejroliya for his first match since April 9. It wasn’t clear if Arshad Khan, who missed out was fit or not. Prasidh Krishna also made the bowl-first XI, which confirms Dharamsala’s reputation for not being friendly to spinners. One out of Krishna and Khejroliya was expected to make way for Rahul Tewatia in the chase.

Royal Challengers Bengaluru: 1 Virat Kohli, 2 Venkatesh Iyer, 3 Devdutt Padikkal, 4 Rajat Patidar (capt.), 5 Jitesh Sharma (wk), 6 Tim David, 7 Krunal Pandya, 8 Jacob Duffy, 9 Bhuvneshwar Kumar, 10 Josh Hazlewood, 11 Rasikh Salam

RCB bench Romario Shepherd, Suyash Sharma, Kanishk Chohan, Abhinandan Singh, Jordan Cox

Gujarat Titans: 1 Shubman Gill (capt.), 2 B Sai Sudharsan, 3 Jos Buttler (wk), 4 Washington Sundar, 5 Jason Holder, 6 Nishant Sindhu, 7 Rashid Khan, 8 Kulwant Khejroliya, 9 Kagiso Rabada, 10 Mohammed Siraj, 11 M Prasidh Krishna

GT bench Rahul Tewatia, Glenn Phillips, Anuj Rawat, Kumar Kushagra, Sai Kishore