IPL 2026: LSG win toss, opt to bowl first against winless KKR

Lucknow Super Giants won the toss and chose to bowl first against Kolkata Knight Riders at Eden Gardens. Rishabh Pant's LSG are unchanged, while Ajinkya Rahane's KKR brought back Sunil Narine and are still searching for their first win of IPL 2026.

LSG Opt to Bowl First

Lucknow Super Giants have asked Kolkata Knight Riders to bat first in match 15 of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2026 at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata on Thursday. The Rishabh Pant-led LSG are coming after a win over Sunrisers Hyderabad in the last game, whereas Ajinkya Rahane's KKR will be hopeful of their first win of the season.

Captains at the Toss

Speaking at the toss, DC skipper Pant said, "I think [we are] looking to bowl first. We want to put opposition at the back. As 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, having that intent at the same time. When you win, I think when people see all that is coming together, really happy for that. We're playing with the same team. No change for us."

KKR skipper Rahane informed that Varun Chakaravarthy is still recovering from his injury, whereas Sunil Narine has recovered and will feature in today's home fixture. "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. When he (Green) is allowed to bowl, we will see him, the combination gets better, so Rovman Powell plays, when Cam Green bowls, then we have an extra bowler," said Rahane after the toss.

Cameron Green was bowling during the practice session before the match and is expected to bowl in this match.

Team Lineups

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

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

Kolkata Knight Riders Impact subs

Manish Pandey, Vaibhav Arora, Tejasvi Dahiya, Rahul Tripathi, Tim Seifert

Lucknow Super Giants Impact subs

Ayush Badoni, Matthew Breetzke, Shahbaz Ahmad, Mayank Yadav, Himmat Singh.

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