Rajasthan Royals won the toss and elected to bat first against Kolkata Knight Riders in the IPL 2026 match at Eden Gardens on Sunday afternoon. KKR, looking for their first win of the season, made no changes to their playing eleven, leaving out Finn Allen and Navdeep Saini. Sri Lankan Matheesha Pathirana, who joined the camp on April 17, was not part of KKR's team against RR.

High-flying Rajasthan Royals made two changes to their playing XI after their shock loss against Sunrisers Hyderabad. Brijesh Sharma and Shimron Hetmyer returned to the starting eleven, replacing Tushar Deshpande and Lhuan-dre Pretorius, respectively.

KKR Playing XI (bowling first): Ajinkya Rahane(c), Tim Seifert(w), Cameron Green, Rovman Powell, Rinku Singh, Sunil Narine, Ramandeep Singh, Anukul Roy, Vaibhav Arora, Kartik Tyagi, Varun Chakaravarthy

Impact players: Manish Pandey, Finn Allen, Angkrish Raghuvanshi, Tejasvi Singh, Navdeep Saini

RR Playing XI (batting first): Yashasvi Jaiswal, Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, Dhruv Jurel (wk), Riyan Parag (c), Shimron Hetmyer, Donovan Ferreira, Ravindra Jadeja, Jofra Archer, Ravi Bishnoi, Nandre Burger, Brijesh Sharma

Impact players: Sandeep Sharma, Shubham Dubey, Lhuan-dre Pretorius, Ravi Singh, Yash Punja

Also read: KKR vs RR Live Updates

KKR wanted to bat first against RR: Ajinkya Rahane

After losing the toss, Kolkata Knight Riders captain revealed that he was looking forward to batting first as well. With no wins in the opening six matches in IPL 2026, the former RR skipper revealed that his bowlers' impact in the middle over in the last three games was the reason he wanted to bat first at Eden Gardens.

"We were looking to bat as well," Rahane said. "As I said in the last game as well, batsmen should bat with freedom. The kind of situation we are in at the moment right now, we want all the batters to bat freely, have that fearless approach. The bowling unit has been doing well. They started to do really well. In the last three games, especially the middle overs and end overs, they bowled really well. That was the reason we thought of batting first. But happy to lose the toss."

Rahane also talked about the team spirit after a troubling start to their IPL 2026 campaign. KKR remain the only team without a win after 26 matches. The veteran batter shared that the players remain in a good mindset and that preparations have been 'fantastic'.

"We believe the past is dead, the future, we don't know what is rolling up. And now what we have at the moment is this moment," Rahane added. "So, giving our best, playing with freedom, and focusing on controllables. Sometimes when you lose games, you try to think about too many things. I feel the boys. The preparation has been fantastic. They're in good mindspace. Results can go either way. So it's all about being in this moment and playing with freedom."

Meanwhile, RR captain Riyan Parag stated that he chose to bat first due to the dry wicket at Eden Gardens.