IPL 2026 – KKR vs MI – KKR opt to bowl; Hardik Pandya returns for MI

Toss Kolkata Knight Riders opt to bowl vs Mumbai Indians

Kolkata Knight Riders won the toss and chose to chase in their must-win match against Mumbai Indians, who were reinforced by the returns of Hardik Pandya, Suryakumar Yadav and, likely, AM Ghazanfar as the Impact Player when they defend in the night.

It was an important toss to win for KKR after the pitch had stayed under the covers in the rainy Kolkata. With five wins in their six matches, KKR were alive in the tournament despite not winning any match in the first six. They still needed to win their last two matches and needed Rajasthan Royals and Punjab Kings to lose their final matches.

KKR were buoyed by Varun Chakravarthy’s availability for the game. He has struggled with a niggle through the season. With Matheesha Pathirana out with a hamstring injury, KKR replaced him with a batter: Rovman Powell. Cameron Green was their sixth bowling option. Finn Allen was almost certain to be the Impact Player.

Mumbai Indians: 1 Ryan Rickelton (wk), 2 Rohit Sharma, 3 Suryakumar Yadav, 4 Naman Dhir, 5 Tilak Varma, 6 Hardik Pandya (capt.), 7 Will Jacks, 8 Corbin Bosch, 9 Deepak Chahar, 10 Jasprit Bumrah, 11 Raghu Sharma

MI bench: AM Ghazanfar, Shardul Thakur, Mayank Rawat, Robin Minz, Krish Bhagat

Kolkata Knight Riders: 1 Ajinkya Rahane (capt.), 2 Angkrish Raghuvanshi (wk), 4 Cameron Green, 4 Rovman Powell, 5 Manish Pandey, 6 Rinku Singh, 7 Sunil Narine, 8 Anukul Roy, 9 Varun Chakravarthy, 10 Saurabh Dubey, 11 Kartik Tyagi

KKR bench: Vaibhav Arora, Finn Allen, Rahul Tripathi, Ramandeep Singh, Tejasvi Singh

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