Kolkata, May 16 (IANS) An unchanged Gujarat Titans (GT) won the toss and elected to bowl first against Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) in Match 60 of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2026 at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata on Saturday. A win for GT, who are on a five-match winning streak, will make them the first side to seal a playoffs spot in IPL 2026, while a defeat for KKR will confirm their exit from the competition.

After winning the toss, GT skipper Shubman Gill said, “It does look like that (pitch having moisture). There was a little bit of rain around yesterday, and it looks a little bit sticky. We are hoping that it’s going to get better in the second innings.

“Definitely, we believe that batsmen do win you matches, but if you want to win championships, your bowling unit has to be in form, and luckily for us, they are firing on all cylinders. Our bowling unit has been top-notch this season. The momentum is with us, and we have to keep doing the things consistently that we have been doing well.

“This is not the stage, this is not the time to take any teams lightly, but we’re hoping to win the next two and hopefully be stable in the top two positions. It gives the edge to the teams that finish in the top two. You get one extra match. Hopefully, we won’t play the extra match, but it does give you an edge; you can go out there and play your game,” he said.

KKR skipper Ajinkya Rahane said Varun Chakaravarthy is back in the playing eleven after recovering from his niggle and replaces Vaibhav Arora.

“Taking one game at a time. We have to win three games and see what happens. We’ve been playing really good cricket, the last five games. We were looking to field as well. There’s a little bit of moisture. I don’t think it’ll change too much,” he said.

Playing XIs:

Gujarat Titans: Sai Sudharsan, Shubman Gill (captain), Jos Buttler (wk), Nishant Sindhu, Washington Sundar, Jason Holder, Rashid Khan, Arshad Khan, Kagiso Rabada, Ravisrinivasan Sai Kishore, and Mohammed Siraj

Impact substitutes: Rahul Tewatia, Glenn Phillips, Anuj Rawat, Prasidh Krishna, and Kumar Kushagra.

Kolkata Knight Riders: Finn Allen, Ajinkya Rahane (captain), Angkrish Raghuvanshi, Cameron Green, Rinku Singh, Manish Pandey, Sunil Narine, Anukul Roy, Varun Chakravarthy, Kartik Tyagi, and Saurabh Dubey

Impact substitutes: Vaibhav Arora, Ramandeep Singh, Tejasvi Dahiya, Rovman Powell, and Matheesha Pathirana.

–IANS

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