Sunil Narine missed out as the Kolkata Knight Riders host the Punjab Kings in their third match of the Indian Premier League 2026 at the Eden Gardens on Monday, April 6. During the toss, KKR skipper Ajinkya Rahane revealed that Narine is down with sickness.ย
Rahane won the toss and opted to bat first. The hosts have made two forced changes as the KKR skipper revealed that Narine is out due to sickness, along with the injured Varun Chakravarthy. In their place, the Knight Riders have brought in Navdeep Saini and Rovman Powell. “We are going to bat first. Looks a good wicket, little bit of the drier side but it’s a very good wicket and slightly less covering of grass as well. It’s all about having that belief and confidence. It’s about winning those small moments. We are confident. Two changes, forced. Varun Chakaravarthy got injured taking the catch in the last game and Narine is sick. Powell and Saini are in,” Rahane said at the toss.
PBKS go with same team
Meanwhile, PBKS did not make any change to their line-up that defeated Chennai Super Kings in their last game, Punjab Kings captain Shreyas confirmed. Iyer also wanted to bowl, he stated. “Not at all, I was supposed to bowl as well. So kind of happy with the decision he took. Our (Shreyas and Ponting) chemistry blossomed from our Delhi Capitals days. He gives freedom to all the youngsters and he is an inspiration himself. Same team for us,” Iyer said at the toss.
Punjab Kings (Playing XI): Prabhsimran Singh(w), Shreyas Iyer(c), Cooper Connolly, Nehal Wadhera, Shashank Singh, Marcus Stoinis, Marco Jansen, Xavier Bartlett, Vijaykumar Vyshak, Arshdeep Singh, Yuzvendra Chahal
Kolkata Knight Riders (Playing XI): Finn Allen, Ajinkya Rahane(c), Cameron Green, Angkrish Raghuvanshi(w), Rovman Powell, Rinku Singh, Ramandeep Singh, Anukul Roy, Navdeep Saini, Vaibhav Arora, Kartik Tyagi
Kolkata Knight Riders Impact subs: Blessing Muzarabani, Manish Pandey, Tejasvi Singh, Rahul Tripathi, Saurabh Dubey
Punjab Kings Impact subs: Priyansh Arya, Suryansh Shedge, Vishnu Vinod, Pravin Dubey, Harpreet Brar
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