On the second attempt, Parag called loudly, won the toss and elected to bat first.
A bizarre controversy took place during the toss of the IPL 2026 Qualifier 2 between Gujarat Titans (GT) and Rajasthan Royals (RR) in Mullanpur on Friday (May 29).
GT skipper Shubman Gill flipped the coin and his RR counterpart Riyan Parag called "heads," which was clearly heard on the broadcasting feed. However, the match referee Prakash Bhatt failed to hear it clearly, causing temporary confusion.
Since Bhatt was unsure of the call, broadcaster Ravi Shastri announced that the toss would be conducted again. Gill, who thought he had won, looked frustrated but complied with the re-spin.
On the second attempt, Parag called loudly. This time the referee heard the call, declared him the winner, and the RR captain elected to bat first.
"We will bat first. Pretty much the same wicket, but I think it slows down at the backend, and we have the bowlers for it. We just need to play better cricket for 40 overs, the best team will win. The support staff have been incredible about recoveries and injuries. Same team," Parag said at the toss.
Gill stated that GT would have batted first as well had he won the toss. He expressed disappointment that the referee failed to hear Riyan’s call in the first attempt.
“We would have batted first as well. 40 overs of play has already been [played] on the wicket and we didn't think it's gonna change much, but unfortunately, I don't think the referee heard the call from Riyan. (This is the all-important one today for a chance to go to the final) Yeah, definitely, we've got everything to play. It's now or never situation for us and everyone is firing up. (Changes?) One change, Sai (Kishore) comes back into the team,” Gill remarked.
Gujarat Titans (Playing XI): Sai Sudharsan, Shubman Gill(c), Jos Buttler(w), Nishant Sindhu, Washington Sundar, Jason Holder, Rashid Khan, Sai Kishore, Kagiso Rabada, Prasidh Krishna, Mohammed Siraj
Gujarat Titans Impact Subs: Rahul Tewatia, Glenn Phillips, Anuj Rawat, Kumar Kushagra, Arshad Khan
Rajasthan Royals (Playing XI): Yashasvi Jaiswal, Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, Dhruv Jurel(w), Riyan Parag(c), Donovan Ferreira, Dasun Shanaka, Ravindra Jadeja, Jofra Archer, Nandre Burger, Brijesh Sharma, Yash Raj Punja
Rajasthan Royals Impact Subs: Shubham Dubey, Sushant Mishra, Aman Rao Perala, Ravi Bishnoi, Tushar Deshpande