Kolkata, April 9 (IANS) Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) won the toss and elected to bowl first against the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) in Match 15 of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2026, played at Eden Gardens on Thursday. LSG have not made any changes to the playing XI, while Sunil Narine is back for KKR in place of fast bowler Blessing Muzarabani, and Varun Chakravarthy is still out due to injury.
The three-time champions KKR have had a tough start to their campaign this season. They went down by six wickets to the Mumbai Indians at the Wankhede Stadium and, upon returning home, suffered a crushing 65-run defeat against Sunrisers Hyderabad. Their latest match against the Punjab Kings was abandoned due to rain, leaving them with just a solitary point so far.
In contrast, LSG have featured in only two games up to this point. Their campaign began at home against the Delhi Capitals, where they seemed in control after reducing the opposition to 26/4 while defending a modest target of 142. However, Sameer Rizvi’s match-winning innings turned the game around in Delhi’s favour.LSG responded strongly in their next fixture, registering their first win of the season against Sunrisers Hyderabad. A composed and effective bowling display paved the way for a five-wicket victory, providing the side with much-needed confidence going into this clash.
After winning the toss, LSG captain Rishabh 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. We always talk about being positive, having that intent at the same time. When you win, I think when people see all that are coming together, they are 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.”
After losing the toss, KKR skipper Ajinkya Rahane said, “We wanted to bowl. 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.”
Playing XIs:
Lucknow Super Giants: Mitchell Marsh, Aiden Markram, Rishabh Pant (C & wk), Nicholas Pooran, Abdul Samad, Mukul Choudhary, M Siddharth, Avesh Khan, Mohammed Shami, Digvesh Rathi, Prince Yadav
Impact substitutes: Ayush Badoni, Matthew Breetzke, Shahbaz Ahmad, Mayank Yadav, Himmat Singh
Kolkata Knight Riders: Finn Allen, Ajinkya Rahane (C), Cameron Green, Angkrish Raghuvanshi (WK), Rovman Powell, Rinku Singh, Ramandeep Singh, Sunil Narine, Anukul Roy, Navdeep Saini, Kartik Tyagi
Impact substitutes: Manish Pandey, Vaibhav Arora, Tejasvi Singh, Rahul Tripathi, Tim Seifert
—IANS
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