The excitement at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium reached a fever pitch as the Rajasthan Royals (RR) clashed with the Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) in the 64th match of IPL 2026 on Tuesday. With the tournament reaching its business end, every match is crucial for playoff positioning. Winning the toss, stand-in RR captain Yashasvi Jaiswal elected to bowl first, banking on the evening dew factor later in the game. However, the major talking point before the first ball was bowled centered around the unexpected absences of marquee players Riyan Parag and Mohammed Shami from their respective starting lineups.
Why Riyan Parag and Mohammed Shami Are Not Playing in Today’s Match?
The absence of Rajasthan’s in-form batter Parag came as a massive blow to the home fans. During the toss, young skipper Yashasvi Jaiswal, stepping into the leadership role, shed light on Parag’s sudden omission. “He had some hamstring injury and he’ll be fine soon, I hope so. So, he’s not playing this game,” Jaiswal revealed. Parag, who has been a pillar in the RR middle-order, is currently being managed cautiously to avoid aggravating the niggle. Jaiswal also mentioned that veteran all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja is sitting out as he recovers from minor niggles. To fill these gaps, RR announced three major changes, bringing in Sandeep Sharma, Sushant Mishra, and Lhuan-dre Pretorius.
On the other side of the camp, Lucknow Super Giants captain Rishabh Pant announced a heavily modified bowling attack, most notably missing the services of veteran Indian speedster Shami. While Pant did not dive deep into the specific medical details regarding Shami, he confirmed that the pacer was rested for this encounter, making way for left-arm seamer Mohsin Khan. Furthermore, LSG had to deal with the departure of South African star Aiden Markram, who flew back home due to personal reasons, opening the door for Ayush Badoni to return to the playing eleven.
Also READ: Lucknow Super Giants suffer setback as Aiden Markram exits IPL 2026 midway for personal reasons
Playing XI and Impact Substitutes of both the teams
Despite the injuries and tactical shuffles, both franchises have managed to field highly competitive lineups, heavily relying on their deep squads and strategic bench strength.
Lucknow Super Giants (Playing XI): Mitchell Marsh, Josh Inglis, Nicholas Pooran, Rishabh Pant (wk/c), Ayush Badoni, Abdul Samad, Shahbaz Ahmed, Mohsin Khan, Mayank Yadav, Akash Maharaj Singh, Prince Yadav.
Impact Substitutes: Mukul Choudhary, Manimaran Siddharth, Digvesh Singh Rathi, Himmat Singh, Arshin Kulkarni.
Rajasthan Royals (Playing XI): Yashasvi Jaiswal (c), Lhuan-dre Pretorius, Dhruv Jurel (wk), Donovan Ferreira, Shubham Dubey, Dasun Shanaka, Jofra Archer, Sushant Mishra, Sandeep Sharma, Brijesh Sharma, Yash Raj Punja.
Impact Substitutes: Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, Yudhvir Singh, Aman Rao Perala, Ravi Bishnoi, Riyan Parag.
Interestingly, despite his hamstring injury, Parag has been named among Rajasthan’s Impact Substitutes. This suggests that his injury might not be severe enough to rule him out completely, leaving a small window for him to come out to bat if the Royals face a dire emergency in the second innings.
Also READ: IPL 2026: Playoffs qualification scenarios explained as race for final spot heats up
