As Kolkata Knight Riders side came in to bowl first at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium in Match 45 of the ongoing Indian Premier League (IPL) 2026 against Sunrisers Hyderabad on Sunday, May 03, fans are curious if ace pacer Matheesha Pathirana will be seen delivering his slingy yorkers for the three-time champions. KKR have also dropped one of their overseas players from their playing XI for this fixture.
SRH vs KKR: Toss Update
The coin flip went in SRH’s favour after KKR skipper Ajinkya Rahane called it incorrectly at the toss. The hosts opted to bat first in the afternoon fixture, confident of their batting order to put up a decent total on the board, which boasts a flat track for the ongoing encounter.
SRH vs KKR: Allen back for KKR; both sides make two changes
As a matter of fact, KKR fans will still have to wait for the return of Matheesha Pathirana, as the pacer has not been added to the playing XI. However, experienced campaigner Manish Pandey is playing his first game of the season, replacing Ramandeep Singh, while Finn Allen came in place of Tim Seifert. SRH benched Harsh Dubey and Nitish Kumar Reddy to bring in Ravichandran Smaran and Harshal Patel.
SRH vs KKR: What did the captains say?
Pat Cummins, SRH captain, said
“We’ll bat first. Pitch looks good and it’s very hot, we’ll bat and post a total. I’m not good at reading the pitches, it looks nice and must be high scoring. I think the thing is the young guys have come in and been fantastic. A lot of the stalwarts as well have really hit their stride, I think we’ve got over 220 all but one game. So it just feels like everyone’s, you know, found their rhythm, built themselves in the tournament, playing that style that we want, which is really positive and everyone’s bought into that.
“(On their winning run) I think that’s just the thing. It’s very unlikely we’re going to win every single game for the rest of the season, but we know this style works and we’re five in a row at the moment. So even if there’s a little glitch, just keep buying for that style. Nitish misses out. He’s got a bit of illness, Smaran comes in for his first game and Harshal Patel replaces Harsh Dubey.”
Ajinkya Rahane, KKR captain, said
“We wanted to bat first as well. Those breaks so far, it really helped us as a team, re-coupling and thinking about the things which we did right and the improvement point of view. As I said in the last game as well, it’s all about winning those moments, small, small moments in this format.
“Game can change here and there within an over. It’s all about being present, being slightly proactive and also winning those moments. I thought hose breaks, so far, definitely helped. We’ve got two changes. Finn Allen is back in place of Seifert and then Manish Pandey is playing his first game of this season in place of Ramandeep Singh.”
SRH vs KKR: Playing XIs
Sunrisers Hyderabad
Abhishek Sharma, Travis Head, Ishan Kishan (wicketkeeper), Heinrich Klaasen, Salil Arora, Aniket Verma, Smaran Ravichandran, Pat Cummins (captain), Shivang Kumar, Harshal Patel, Eshan Malinga
Impact Substitutes: Praful Hinge, Harsh Dubey, Liam Livingstone, Sakib Hussain, Zeeshan Ansari
Kolkata Knight Riders
Ajinkya Rahane (captain), Angkrish Raghuvanshi (wicketkeeper), Cameron Green, Rovman Powell, Manish Pandey, Rinku Singh, Anukul Roy, Sunil Narine, Vaibhav Arora, Kartik Tyagi, Varun Chakravarthy
Impact Substitutes: Finn Allen, Ramandeep Singh, Tejasvi Dahiya, Navdeep Saini, Tim Seifert
