The return of Matheesha Pathirana was looked forward to ahead of the ongoing Indian Premier League (IPL) 2026 encounter between Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) and Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) in Match 38 of the tournament on Sunday, April 26, being played at the Bharat Ratna Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee Ekana Stadium in Lucknow.
LSG vs KKR: Toss Update
The toss went in favour of the hosts, as Rishabh Pant confirmed their decision to bowl first on a sluggish track at the Ekana Stadium. Pant believes that the abundance of leadership figures within the dressing room can certainly help the Lucknow-based franchise to stage a comeback into the competition. KKR skipper Ajinkya Rahane wanted to bat first anyway, so the coin flip turned out to be inconsequential.
LSG vs KKR: Sri Lanka NOC not enough, as Pathirana remains on the bench
While a lot of KKR fans expected the ongoing game to be the first of the season for Pathirana, he might have to wait a little longer, as the visiting team did not make any changes to their line-up from the previous clash. The only change of the night came from the LSG side, as they brought in George Linde in place of Manimaran Siddharth.
LSG vs KKR: What did the captains say?
Rishabh Pant, LSG captain,
“We’re gonna bowl first, we want to again put the opposition in the back first and just find the answer as a batting group. Just one change, Linde comes in for Siddharth. 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 definitely needed and we’ll take that one too.”
Ajinkya Rahane, KKR captain,
“We were looking to bat first. At the moment it’s important to see how we are playing as a team. Giving that freedom to the batting unit. Need to assess those conditions. We are going with the same team. That victory was very good. It’s always about improvement. Had some good practice sessions, looking forward to the game.”
LSG vs KKR: Playing XIs
Lucknow Super Giants
Aiden Markram, Mitchell Marsh, Rishabh Pant (C & WK), Nicholas Pooran, Ayush Badoni, Mukul Choudhary, George Linde, Mohammed Shami, Prince Yadav, Digvesh Singh Rathi, Mohsin Khan
Impact Substitutes: Himmat Singh, Akshat Raghuvanshi, Abdul Samad, Avesh Khan, M Siddharth
Kolkata Knight Riders
Ajinkya Rahane (C), Tim Seifert, Angkrish Raghuvanshi (WK), Cameron Green, Rinku Singh, Rovman Powell, Sunil Narine, Ramandeep Singh, Anukul Roy, Vaibhav Arora, Kartik Tyagi
Impact Substitutes: Manish Pandey, Finn Allen, Tejasvi Singh, Navdeep Saini, Varun Chakravarthy
