IPL 2026: Why is Romario Shepherd not playing RCB vs GT Qualifier 1?

Published - 26 May 2026, 18:41 IST | Updated - 26 May 2026, 19:24 IST

The Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) take on the Gujarat Titans (GT) in Qualifier 1 at the Himachal Pradesh Cricket Association Stadium in Dharamsala on Tuesday, May 26. These two teams faced each other twice earlier in the season. Both of them won at home and lost on the road.

Shubman Gill won the toss on Tuesday and opted to field first. He said that there could be dew in the second innings. Rajat Patidar welcomed the challenge of batting first and said that the surface will not change in the 40 overs, where the ball could come onto the bat nicely.

Jacob Duffy played a crucial role for RCB earlier in the tournament when Josh Hazlewood was recovering from his injury. The Kiwi seamer is back in the side, with Romario Shepherd being sent to the Impact Substitues' list. Suyash Sharma is also in that list and it will be interesting to see whether RCB bring him or Shepherd as the Impact Player. However, Phil Salt will certainly not be playing as he isn't even among the substitutes. Meanwhile, Gujarat went for experience, replacing 28-year-old Arshad Khan with fellow left-arm seamer Kulwant Khejroliya (35).

We're gonna bowl first. It looks like a good wicket, you know, but we have seen and in this ground particularly, there is a bit of dew in the second innings, so it's always good to have a total on the board and a big win and then try to chase it down. I think, this match is all about taking the equation out of the game. We have been playing some really good cricket and hopefully we'll continue to do so. I've played a lot here in the under 14, under 16 days. I've spent quite a bit of time here, so yeah, hopefully it's gonna be a good use of us. And yes, it is one of the prettiest grounds, in the world. We have one change. Kulwant comes in in place of Arshad Khan.

I think, to be honest, the wicket looks pretty good. It's pretty hard. It will come nicely on the bat, so I think it will not change in 40 overs. So we'll try to put a good total on the board and keep them under pressure. I think the first qualifier game is, I think it's a nice game to go straight in the final after winning this game, but we are just taking this one game at a time. We'll give our best in this game. I think we've played good cricket and we are just focusing more on our strength, rather than focusing more on the opposition. So yeah, focusing more on the strength is our motto this year. I think the surface looks pretty good. It's pretty hard. There's no grass cover on it, I think so. It will be nice to bat on.

Venkatesh Iyer, Virat Kohli, Devdutt Padikkal, Rajat Patidar (C), Jitesh Sharma (WK), Tim David, Krunal Pandya, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Jacob Duffy, Josh Hazlewood, Rasikh Salam Dar.

Impact Substitutes: Romario Shepherd, Suyash Sharma, Kanishk Chouhan, Abhinandan Singh, Jordan Cox

Sai Sudharsan, Shubman Gill (C), Jos Buttler (WK), Washington Sundar, Nishant Sindhu, Jason Holder, Rashid Khan, Kulwant Khejroliya, Kagiso Rabada, Mohammed Siraj, Prasidh Krishna.

Impact Substitutes: Rahul Tewatia, Glenn Phillips, Anuj Rawat, Kumar Kushagra, Sai Kishore