Mohammed Siraj, in his first match against former team Royal Challengers Bengaluru after not getting retained ahead of the IPL 2025 auction, breathed fire for Gujarat Titans at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium on Wednesday. In a terrific spell of fast bowling, Mohammed Siraj stunned RCB as he scalped Devdutt Padikkal and Phil Salt in the Powerplay. Siraj was part of RCB for seven years. After he was picked by GT in the IPL 2025 auction, Siraj wrote an emotional note for RCB fans: "From the first ball I bowled in RCB colours, to every wicket taken, every match played, every moment shared with you, the journey has been nothing short of extraordinary."
Commenting on the Salt dismissal by Siraj, GT wrote on X: "Stumps to Siraj tonight - Mujhe Kyu Toda?"
Uncapped fast-bowling all-rounder Arshad Khan comes in for fast bowler Kagiso Rabada as Gujarat Titans won the toss and elected to bowl first against an unchanged Royal Challengers Bengaluru in match 14 of IPL 2025 at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium on Wednesday. Wednesday's match is also table toppers, RCB's first home game and fourth ranked GT's maiden away game of the ongoing season. After winning the toss, GT skipper said Rabada is unavailable for the clash due to personal reasons, paving the way for Arshad to come into the playing eleven.
“Looks like a good wicket. We've seen the conditions don't change much. We're all about reducing our unforced errors across all departments. We'll try to finetune the areas that need it,” he said.
RCB skipper Rajat Patidar, who got a massive cheer from the packed crowd in the stadium, said, he would've bowled first as well due to the pitch being fresh. “It's pretty hard and won't change much. The way boys are chipping in gives a lot of confidence as a captain. We love this crowd. The way they love us and the support we've always received is incredible,” he said.
Pitch number six is being used for Wednesday's match, a surface which wasn't used last year. As per the pitch report by the broadcasters, the wicket looks pretty dry yet firm, but can have good bounce. The square boundaries stand at 68m and 61m respectively, while the straight boundary is at 73m.
Playing XIs
Gujarat Titans: Shubman Gill (captain), B Sai Sudharsan, Jos Buttler (wk), Shahrukh Khan, Rahul Tewatia, Arshad Khan, Rashid Khan, R Sai Kishore, Mohammed Siraj, Prasidh Krishna, and Ishant Sharma
Substitutes: Sherfane Rutherford, Glenn Phillips, Anuj Rawat, Mahipal Lomror, and Washington Sundar
Royal Challengers Bengaluru: Phil Salt, Virat Kohli, Devdutt Padikkal, Rajat Patidar (captain), Liam Livingstone, Jitesh Sharma (wk), Tim David, Krunal Pandya, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Josh Hazlewood, and Yash Dayal
Substitutes: Suyash Sharma, Rasikh Dar, Manoj Bhandage, Jacob Bethell, and Swapnil Singh
With IANS inputs