Pat Cummins back at the helm as Hyderabad opt to field first after toss win vs Rajasthan

Pat Cummins is back. The SRH captain who missed the start of IPL 2026 with a lumbar stress injury won the toss at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium in Jaipur on April 25 and chose to field first for Match 36 against Rajasthan Royals.

RR vs SRH: Return of Pat Cummins for Hyderabad

Cummins has not played a competitive game for some time and was candid about the anticipation at the toss. "Still really fresh. It's been a little while but I've had really good preparation, a couple of bowls over here. I haven't played a game for a while so we'll see how we go. But the body feels awesome."

His return hands the captaincy back from Ishan Kishan who led SRH through the first seven games and won four of them. Cummins was generous in his assessment of what Kishan achieved. "He's fantastic. Four wins from the first seven games. He played the style that we really try and lead into here at SRH, that aggressive fearless approach."

RR vs SRH: The teams the changes and what both captains said

SRH have made two changes with Pat Cummins coming in for Madushanka and Praful Hinge returning to replace Harsh Dubey. The core that delivered SRH's recent three-game winning streak remains largely intact with Abhishek Sharma, Ishan Kishan, Heinrich Klaasen and Eshan Malinga all named in the XI.

Cummins at the toss acknowledged that playing at an away venue for the first time this season presents a different challenge. "The challenge when you go play away is trying to sense what a good score is. This is the first game for this venue for the season so it'll be a challenge for both teams."

Rajasthan Royals have made one change going with one overseas player instead of three in their previous combination. Riyan Parag won the toss call but lost it and was happy enough to bat first.

He acknowledged that the middle order needs to take more responsibility. "The message to the group is that we always need to play 40 overs of good cricket. A few overs here and there can cost you an IPL game and that's how harsh the IPL is. The openers have done really well but they can keep on doing well and hopefully we can pick up our slack."

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RR vs SRH: Playing XIs and Impact Players

SRH XI: Abhishek Sharma, Ishan Kishan, Heinrich Klaasen, Salil Arora (wk), Aniket Verma, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Pat Cummins (c), Shivang Kumar, Sakib Hussain, Praful Hinge, Eshan Malinga. Impact subs: Smaran Ravichandran, Liam Livingstone, Harsh Dubey, Harshal Patel, Travis Head.

RR XI: Yashasvi Jaiswal, Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, Dhruv Jurel (wk), Riyan Parag (c), Shimron Hetmyer, Donovan Ferreira, Ravindra Jadeja, Jofra Archer, Tushar Deshpande, Nandre Burger, Brijesh Sharma. Impact subs: Lhuan-dre Pretorius, Ravi Bishnoi, Ravi Singh, Sandeep Sharma, Shubham Dubey.

RR vs SRH: The context the standings and what tonight means for both sides

RR sit third on the table with five wins from seven games and 10 points. SRH are fourth with four wins from seven and eight points. A RR win tonight takes them to 12 points and strengthens their position in the top two.

An SRH win draws them level with RR on 10 and with Cummins back leading the attack for the first time this season the bowling attack looks more complete than at any point in IPL 2026. Abhishek Sharma leads the SRH batting with 323 runs and a 135 not out against DC in his most recent innings.

Eshan Malinga has 12 wickets and has been the bowling revelation of the tournament. For RR Vaibhav Sooryavanshi has 254 runs at a strike rate of 220.86 and Jofra Archer and Ravi Bishnoi have 11 wickets each.

Two top-four sides, two strong squads and a Jaipur surface that rewards both the pace Cummins brings and the leg-spin of Bishnoi who operates beautifully at this ground. This is the most anticipated fixture of Match Day 18.