IPL 2026: LSG Opt To Bowl Against KKR After Pant Wins Toss

Lucknow Super Giants chose to field after skipper Rishabh Pant secured the toss against Kolkata Knight Riders at the Bharat Ratna Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee Ekana Cricket Stadium during match 38 of IPL 2026.

Pant announced the inclusion of George Linde in place of M Siddharth, signalling a tactical adjustment in the bowling department. He also outlined the team’s intention to apply early pressure and rely on the batting unit to respond effectively.

“Definitely, we are working towards it. When there are lots of leaders in the family, you have to find a way, and we are pretty close to finding ways, and we gotta just stick together, stay tight, because we know that we can turn around the season from here, and I’m pretty confident to make it happen. See, definitely any kind of confidence is needed, and we’ll take that one too,” he said.

KKR captain Ajinkya Rahane confirmed that the side would continue with the unchanged playing XI. He also expressed belief in a turnaround.

“We know we can turn around the season from here, and I am pretty confident. We are working towards it. Have to find a way; we are pretty close to it,” he further stated.

Both teams approached the fixture aiming to reverse their poor runs in the tournament.

LSG had recorded only two victories from seven outings, placing them ninth. KKR had secured a single win and remained at the bottom of the table.

Kolkata Knight Riders: Ajinkya Rahane (captain), Tim Seifert (wk), Angkrish Raghuvanshi, Cameron Green, Rovman Powell, Rinku Singh, Sunil Narine, Anukul Roy, Ramandeep Singh, Kartik Tyagi, Vaibhav Arora.

Impact Substitutes: Manish Pandey, Finn Allen, Tejasvi Singh Dahiya, Navdeep Saini, Varun Chakaravarthy.

Lucknow Super Giants: Mitchell Marsh, Aiden Markram, Rishabh Pant (captain & wk), Ayush Badoni, Nicholas Pooran, Mukul Choudhary, George Linde, Digvesh Rathi, Mohammed Shami, Prince Yadav, Mohsin Khan.

Impact Substitutes: Himmat Singh, Akshat Raghuvanshi, Abdul Samad, Avesh Khan, M Siddharth.

Also Read: IPL 2026: Gaikwad’s 74* Guides CSK To 158/7 Against Gujarat Titans