IPL 2026: LSG opt to bowl first against KKR, Sunil Narine returns; Know playing XIs here

Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) won the toss and chose to bowl first against Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) in their Indian Premier League (IPL) 2026 clash being played at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata.

What did the captains say at the toss?

LSG skipper Rishabh Pant, after winning the toss, said:

"I think [we are] looking to bowl first. We want to put opposition at the back. Like I said before, we trust our bowlers enough that they might do a good job for us. (How significant was that win?) We feel, you know, victory definitely adds to the atmosphere of the team. We always talk about being positive, being having that intent at the same time. When you win, I think when people see all that are coming together, really happy for that. We're playing with the same team. No change for us. (How do they balance their batting order?) We feel, our top order is definitely batting heavy, but at the same time we trust our top order to get us through the whole innings. You know, that's what we are here for."

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Meanwhile, KKR captain Ajinkya Rahane, after losing the toss, said:

"We wanted to bowl. (I'm thinking back to the previous game actually, that's why I asked that) That match didn't get over, so you never know. Just one change - Sunil comes in place of Blessing, Varun is still recovering from his hand injury."

Kolkata Knight Riders (Playing XI)

Ajinkya Rahane(c), Finn Allen, Cameron Green, Angkrish Raghuvanshi(w), Rinku Singh, Rovman Powell, Ramandeep Singh, Anukul Roy, Sunil Narine, Navdeep Saini, Kartik Tyagi

Kolkata Knight Riders Impact subs - Manish Pandey, Vaibhav Arora, Tejasvi Dahiya, Rahul Tripathi, Tim Seifert

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Lucknow Super Giants (Playing XI)

Mitchell Marsh, Aiden Markram, Rishabh Pant(w/c), Nicholas Pooran, Abdul Samad, Mukul Choudhary, Manimaran Siddharth, Avesh Khan, Mohammed Shami, Digvesh Singh Rathi, Prince Yadav

Lucknow Super Giants Impact subs - Ayush Badoni, Matthew Breetzke, Shahbaz Ahmad, Mayank Yadav, Himmat Singh

KKR vs LSG head-to-head

LSG and KKR have locked horns with each other on 6 occasions in IPL so far. While KKR have won twice, LSG have notched 4 victories so far.