Kolkata Knight Riders won the toss and elected to bat first in the crucial IPL 2026 clash against Punjab Kings at Eden Gardens.
KKR have made a couple of big changes to their lineup. Sunil Narine and Varun Chakravarthy both miss out due to sickness and injury respectively, which comes as a massive blow to the side, especially considering they have already struggled so far this season. In their place, Navdeep Saini and Rovman Powell come into the playing XI.
Meanwhile, PBKS without surprises, there are no changes. They are going with the same team after two wins in two games and look in fantastic form.
Kolkata Knight Riders playing XI: Finn Allen, Ajinkya Rahane (c), Cameron Green, Angkrish Raghuvanshi (wk), Rovman Powell, Rinku Singh, Ramandeep Singh, Anukul Roy, Navdeep Saini, Vaibhav Arora, Kartik Tyagi
Impact subs: Blessing Muzarabani, Manish Pandey, Tejasvi Singh, Rahul Tripathi, Saurabh Dubey
Punjab Kings playing XI: Prabhsimran Singh (wk), Shreyas Iyer (c), Nehal Wadhera, Cooper Connolly, Shashank Singh, Marcus Stoinis, Marco Jansen, Vijaykumar Vyshak, Xavier Bartlett, Arshdeep Singh, Yuzvendra Chahal
Impact subs: Priyansh Arya, Suryansh Shedge, Vishnu Vinod, Pravin Dubey, Harpreet Brar
KKR vs PBKS: Captains take at the toss
KKR skipper Ajinkya Rahane sounded confident and stressed on the importance of small moments in the game.
“It’s all about having that belief and confidence. It’s about winning those small moments. We are confident.”
On the other hand, PBKS captain Shreyas Iyer spoke about his strong equation with head coach Ricky Ponting and how it has helped the team environment.
“Our chemistry blossomed right from Delhi Capitals days. He gives a lot of freedom to youngsters in the team and that really helps.”
