KKR choose to bowl first in IPL 2026 as DC make two changes

KKR captain Ajinkya Rahane chose to bowl first against DC in IPL 2026 after winning the toss, while DC made two squad changes.

KKR's bowling-first call Kolkata Knight Riders captain Ajinkya Rahane admitted he did not know much about how the Delhi pitch would play. With the toss won, he followed the usual pattern seen in the shortest format by opting to bowl first. KKR are also keeping the same XI that secured three consecutive wins, leaving out Matheesha Pathirana from the lineup. ## DC's tactical adjustments Delhi Capitals captain Axar Patel introduced an extra spinner by replacing top-order batter Karun Nair with Vipraj Nigam, aiming to exploit what he believed would be a slow surface where the ball stops quickly on the bat. The team made another change as Mukesh Kumar came in for left-arm pacer T Natarajan. Concerns about the pitch included its uneven positioning, which resulted in a shorter square boundary on one side. ## Playoff race tightens Kolkata Knight Riders, currently eighth, and Delhi Capitals, seventh, both remain in contention for the playoffs, though their margin for error is shrinking rapidly. KKR's squad for the match includes Ajinkya Rahane (c), Angkrish Raghuvanshi (wk), Cameron Green, Rovman Powell, Manish Pandey, Rinku Singh, Sunil Narine, Anukul Roy, Kartik Tyagi, Vaibhav Arora, and Varun Chakravarthy. Their bench features Finn Allen, Ramandeep Singh, Tejasvi Singh, Navdeep Saini, and Tim Seifert. ## DC's starting XI and bench Delhi Capitals named KL Rahul (wk), Pathum Nissanka, Sameer Rizvi, Tristan Stubbs, Nitish Rana, Axar Patel (c), Ashutosh Sharma, Lungi Ngidi, Mitchell Starc, Vipraj Nigam, and Mukesh Kumar in their XI. Their bench options include Kuldeep Yadav, Karun Nair, Abhishek Porel, T Natarajan, and David Miller.