Kolkata Knight Riders vs Lucknow Super Giants Players: Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) will get the much-needed boost in their reduced bowling attack as Sunil Narine is set to play today’s game after recovering from the illness that forced him to sit out for the washed-out match against Punjab Kings (PBKS) on Monday.
KKR vs LSG IPL 2026: No Varun Chakaravarthy
Varun Chakaravarthy is unsure for Thursday’s match against Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) because of an injury to his left hand that previously made him miss the PBKS game. Varun’s hand was wrapped in tape while he sat in the dugout, and no timeline has been established for his comeback. According to ESPNCricinfo, he sustained the injury during the match against Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) last week.
According to KKR management, Narine had an “abdominal issue” that prevented him from participating in the PBKS match, marking the first occurrence since the 2019 season where both spinners were absent from the playing XI.
Narine returned to practice on Tuesday and is poised to enhance the inexperienced KKR bowling lineup.
Varun has been wicketless and expensive in both of the matches, going for 0/48 against the Mumbai Indians (MI) in four overs and being belted for 31 runs in two overs against Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH). The bowler has been struggling with form since the Super Eight stage of the T20 World Cup. Starting with nine wickets in four group stage matches, his form tapered off later on, taking just five wickets in five matches from the Super Eight opener to the final against New Zealand and leaking plenty of runs.
KKR vs LSG: Cameron Green To Bowl?
There have been reports floating around that the all-rounder Cameron Green will indeed bowl in this game. Green playing as a pure batter has generated a lot of flak for the franchise. However, on a wicket assisting pacers, Green could be lethal with his pace.
KKR lost both their games against MI and SRH, and just a point after a washout against PBKS, have left them at the eighth spot in the table.
KKR vs LSG: Predicted XIs
Kolkata Knight Riders: Ajinkya Rahane (C), Finn Allen, Cameron Green, Angkrish Raghuvanshi (WK), Rinku Singh, Ramandeep Singh, Anukul Roy, Sunil Narine/Rovman Powell, Varun Chakravarthy/Navdeep Saini, Vaibhav Arora, Kartik Tyagi
Lucknow Super Giants: Aiden Markram, Mitchell Marsh, Rishabh Pant (C & WK), Nicholas Pooran, Abdul Samad, Mukul Choudhary, Manimaran Siddharth, Avesh Khan, Mohammed Shami, Digvesh Singh Rathi, Prince Yadav
(with agencies inputs)
Vishal Pushkar is a Chief Sub-Editor with NewsX and has been associated with the company since March 2026. He has been working as a journalist since 2021. His experience includes working with Zee Media, Amazon and Dainik Jagran. Vishal holds a BA (English Honours) degree from Shyam Lal College, University of Delhi and a Post-Graduate Diploma from the Indian Institute of Mass Communication, Delhi. Vishal has completed a beginner’s course in the German language as well.
