KKR vs SRH: Competition between the teams that lost the first match at Eden Gardens, weakness bowling is the biggest challenge

KKR vs SRH: IPL 2026 could see a high-scoring match between Kolkata Knight Riders and Sunrisers Hyderabad at Eden Gardens on Thursday. Even though both the teams started with explosive batting, their bowling looked weak, which could become a big factor in this match too.

Both the teams had to face defeat in their opening match. In such a situation, both would like to win this match so that their account in the points table opens and the net run rate also improves.

Bowling of both teams is weak
Both teams had scored more than 200 runs in their first match but could not defend the target. KKR’s bowling was exposed when Mumbai Indians easily achieved the target of 221 runs. The team’s fast bowlers Blessing Muzarabani, Karthik Tyagi, Vaibhav Arora could not make much impact.

Apart from this, even in the spin department, Sunil Narine and Varun Chakraborty did not live up to the expectations. Although both have excellent records at Eden Gardens, they are expected to return to the home ground.

On the other hand, Hyderabad’s bowling also appeared to be based on a similar strategy. Bowlers like Jaydev Unadkat, Harshal Patel and David Payne rely on slower balls and variations. Team’s fast bowler Brayden Kars may remain out of this match also due to injury, due to which his problems have increased further.

Talking about the team combination, KKR captain Ajinkya Rahane is fit and ready to play. There is no possibility of major changes in the team. Whereas in Hyderabad, Ishan Kishan will be seen captaining and there may be minor changes in the playing eleven.

Eyes will be on Aniket Verma
Special attention will be kept on two players in this match. Aniket Verma of Sunrisers Hyderabad had played a quick inning of 43 runs in 18 balls in the last match and he can play an important role for the team. KKR’s Finn Allen is in excellent form. So far in 2026, he has scored 732 runs in 17 innings, in which his strike rate is more than 193.

What will be the nature of the pitch?
Talking about the pitch, Eden Gardens has always been helpful for the batsmen. This time too there is full hope of raining runs here. Big scores were also seen in the recent World Cup semi-finals held here.

Head to head record of both teams
KKR has the upper hand in the head-to-head record. The team has won 10 out of 20 matches against SRH and has won 5 out of 6 recent matches. Overall, this match can prove to be heaven for the batsmen and a tough test for the bowlers.

Kolkata Knight Riders: 1 Finn Allen*, 2 Ajinkya Rahane (captain), 3 Cameron Green*, 4 Angkrish Raghuvanshi (wicket-keeper), 5 Rinku Singh, 6 Ramandeep Singh, 7 Anukul Roy, 8 Sunil Narine*, 9 Vaibhav Arora, 10 Varun Chakraborty, 11 Blessing Muzarabani*, 12 Kartik Tyagi.

Sunrisers Hyderabad: 1 Abhishek Sharma, 2 Travis Head*, 3 Ishan Kishan (captain & wk), 4 Heinrich Klaasen*, 5 Nitish Kumar Reddy, 6 Aniket Verma, 7 Salil Arora, 8 Harsh Dubey, 9 Ishan Malinga/Liam Livingstone*, 10 David Paine*, 11 Harshal Patel, 12 Jaydev Unadkat.