Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) have won the toss and chosen to bat first against Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) in the 45th match of IPL 2026 at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium. SRH has made two changes in their playing XI due to Nitish Kumar Reddy’s illness, with Smaran Ravichandran making his debut and Harshal Patel replacing Harsh Dubey. KKR has also made two changes, with Finn Allen and Manish Pandey coming in for Tim Seifert and Ramandeep Singh.
After winning the toss, SRH captain Pat Cummins stated, “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. The younger players have been fantastic; the older ones have held their own, I think we’ve always gone past 220, barring once. We know we won’t win every single game, but this style is working well for us. Nitish misses out due to an illness, so Smaran comes in on his debut. Harshal Patel is in place of Harsh Dubey.”
On the other hand, KKR skipper Ajinkya Rahane mentioned, “We wanted to bat first as well. The break has really helped us; we’ve thought about the things we did well and the areas where we can improve. It’s all about winning those small moments. We’ve got two changes: Finn Allen replaces Tim Seifert, and Manish Pandey plays his first game, replacing Ramandeep Singh.”
