KKR bat with Seifert in for Allen against unchanged GT

KKR made a big change in their top order in a bid to turn around their IPL 2026

Toss Kolkata Knight Riders chose to bat vs Gujarat Titans

The winless Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) made a big change to their top order in their bid to change their fortunes in IPL 2026. They left out Finn Allen, possibly their highest-ceiling top-order option, and brought in his New Zealand compatriot Tim Seifert.

KKR won the toss and chose to bat against Gujarat Titans (GT) in Ahmedabad, with their captain Ajinkya Rahane reckoning it would help his beleaguered batting line-up to play with freedom, without the pressure of a target in front of them.

Shubman Gill, the GT captain, said he would have bowled anyway. While he didn't think dew had played a major role in Ahmedabad so far this season, he felt it could become a factor in this game and going forward, given the rising daytime temperatures.

Seifert is likely to take the keeping gloves from Angkrish Raghuvanshi. Varun Chakravarthy is the likeliest player to come off the Impact Player bench when KKR bowl.

GT were unchanged from their win over Lucknow Super Giants (LSG), with M Shahrukh Khan likely to come off the Impact bench for their chase.

Gujarat Titans: 1 Shubman Gill (capt), 2 B Sai Sudharsan, 3 Jos Buttler (wk), 4 Washington Sundar, 5 Glenn Phillips, 6 Rahul Tewatia, 7 Rashid Khan, 8 Kagiso Rabada, 9 Ashok Sharma, 10 Prasidh Krishna, 11 Mohammed Siraj.

Impact Player options: Jason Holder, M Shahrukh Khan, Manav Suthar, Kulwant Khejroliya, Anuj Rawat.

Kolkata Knight Riders: 1 Tim Seifert (wk), 2 Sunil Narine, 3 Ajinkya Rahane (capt), 4 Angkrish Raghuvanshi, 5 Cameron Green, 6 Rinku Singh, 7 Ramandeep Singh, 8 Rovman Powell, 9 Anukul Roy, 10 Vaibhav Arora, 11 Kartik Tyagi.

Impact Player options: Varun Chakravarthy, Manish Pandey, Finn Allen, Tejasvi Dahiya, Navdeep Saini.