IPL 2026: Ajinkya Rahane wins the toss, KKR elect to bowl against CSK

Ajinkya Rahane (Pic: BCCI)

The Kolkata Knight Riders won the toss and elected to bowl first against the Chennai Super Kings. The two teams are set to face off at the MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai.

KKR are at the bottom of the table with just one point, while CSK are second from bottom with 2 points on the board.

After winning the toss, Ajinkya Rahane said he would bowl first. The KKR skipper added that he hopes that his team can bounce back from the disappointment of the last match.

"Looking to bowl first. I think the last game was really good for us. Unfortunately, the result didn't go our way. But I thought the kind of cricket we played, guys are getting that confidence from the last game. It's all about starting fresh. It's important when things are not going your way, it's important to have that belief, stay positive and have those small, small moments in T20 format is really important. So, now looking forward to this game, we'll start off really well with the ball and then look to chase down the target. The combination looked really good for us in the last game. So, yeah, thinking about this game and just wanted to be in the moment. Tonight, just one change for us. Varun Chakaravarthy is fit. He's come in in place of Navdeep Saini." Rahane said.

CSK captain Ruturaj Gaikwad said that he was looking to bowl first, too. The Indian star admitted that it was nice to get the first win of the season last time out against the Delhi Capitals.

"Yes, we would have bowled first as well. But as I said, you know, the wicket hasn't changed much throughout the course of the game. So not much of a difference. Definitely putting a big total on the scoreboard in the first innings will be challenging, but as I said, you know, it looks a really good surface. Yes, as I said, even in the post-match as well, I felt the bowling was really good defending 210, you know, against a strong DC side. Gave us a lot of confidence, and you know, even the fielding unit was charged up. We saved a few runs, and that is how I think collectively we did really well. Really exciting today as well." Gaikwad said.

Confirmed playing XI for both teams:

Kolkata Knight Riders (Playing XI): Ajinkya Rahane(c), Cameron Green, Angkrish Raghuvanshi(w), Rovman Powell, Rinku Singh, Sunil Narine, Ramandeep Singh, Anukul Roy, Varun Chakaravarthy, Vaibhav Arora, Kartik Tyagi

Chennai Super Kings (Playing XI): Sanju Samson(w), Ruturaj Gaikwad(c), Ayush Mhatre, Sarfaraz Khan, Shivam Dube, Dewald Brevis, Jamie Overton, Noor Ahmad, Anshul Kamboj, Gurjapneet Singh, Khaleel Ahmed