IPL 2026: KKR elect to bowl against MI, suspense over Hardik ends; Playing XIs revealed

Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) won the toss and chose to bowl first against Mumbai Indians (MI) in their do-or-die IPL 2026 clash at the Eden Gardens stadium on May 20. Matheesha Pathirana misses out of KKR fold, who played as an Impact substitute in team's last fixture and was forced out of the ground after injuring himself. Meanwhile, Hardik Pandya returned to MI's playing XI after missing last few matches.

What did the captains say at the toss?

KKR skipper Ajinkya Rahane, after winning the toss, said:

"We are looking to bowl first. It is as simple as that. We want to focus on that, we have to win two out of two and we want to stay in the moment. In the first half of the tournament there were moments if we had capitalised things would have been different. It is frankly tough to read the wicket, we need to play good cricket throughout 40 overs. We are going with the same team."

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Meanwhile, MI captain Hardik Pandya, after losing the toss, said:

"We would have bowled first as well. Looks like a track which has been under the covers. Just wanted to see how exactly it plays out. (Playing for pride) Absolutely. Every game you play, you want to win. You want to play your best cricket, put the best foot forward. At the same point of time, Mumbai Indians have a long history of winning titles. So just want to make sure that we keep the head high and make sure that we represent Mumbai Indians in the best capacity. (Good record here) Yes, but that's in the past. We still need to turn up, play some good cricket and enjoy. (Changes?) I'm back. Gaza is back and I think, yeah, just two changes."

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Kolkata Knight Riders (Playing XI):

Ajinkya Rahane(c), Angkrish Raghuvanshi(w), Cameron Green, Rovman Powell, Manish Pandey, Rinku Singh, Sunil Narine, Anukul Roy, Kartik Tyagi, Varun Chakaravarthy, Saurabh Dubey

Kolkata Knight Riders Impact subs: Finn Allen, Vaibhav Arora, Ramandeep Singh, Tejasvi Dahiya, Rahul Tripathi

Mumbai Indians (Playing XI):

Ryan Rickelton(w), Rohit Sharma, Naman Dhir, Suryakumar Yadav, Tilak Varma, Hardik Pandya(c), Will Jacks, Corbin Bosch, Deepak Chahar, Jasprit Bumrah, Raghu Sharma

Mumbai Indians Impact Subs: Shardul Thakur, Mayank Rawat, Robin Minz, Krish Bhagat, AM Ghazanfar