LSG, led by Rishabh Pant, enter the game after a victory over Sunrisers Hyderabad in their previous match. Kolkata Knight Riders, captained by Ajinkya Rahane, are aiming for their first win of the season.

At the toss, Pant stated: “I think [we are] looking to bowl first. We want to put opposition at the back. As I said before, we trust our bowlers enough that they might do a good job for us. (How significant was that win?) We feel, you know, victory definitely adds to the atmosphere of the team. We always talk about being positive, having that intent at the same time. When you win, I think when people see all that is coming together, really happy for that. We’re playing with the same team. No change for us.”

Rahane provided updates on player fitness, confirming Varun Chakravarthy is still recovering from injury, while Sunil Narine has recuperated and will participate in the home fixture. He commented: “We wanted to bowl. (I’m thinking back to the previous game, actually, that’s why I asked that) That match didn’t get over, so you never know. Just one change – Sunil comes in place of Blessing, Varun is still recovering from his hand injury. When he (Green) is allowed to bowl, we will see him, the combination gets better, so Rovman Powell plays, when Cam Green bowls, then we have an extra bowler.”

Cameron Green practiced bowling before the match and is expected to bowl during the game.

Kolkata Knight Riders starting XI: Ajinkya Rahane (c), Finn Allen, Cameron Green, Angkrish Raghuvanshi (w), Rinku Singh, Rovman Powell, Ramandeep Singh, Anukul Roy, Sunil Narine, Navdeep Saini, Kartik Tyagi.

Lucknow Super Giants starting XI: Mitchell Marsh, Aiden Markram, Rishabh Pant (w/c), Nicholas Pooran, Abdul Samad, Mukul Choudhary, Manimaran Siddharth, Avesh Khan, Mohammed Shami, Digvesh Singh Rathi, Prince Yadav.

KKR impact substitutes: Manish Pandey, Vaibhav Arora, Tejasvi Dahiya, Rahul Tripathi, Tim Seifert.

LSG impact substitutes: Ayush Badoni, Matthew Breetzke, Shahbaz Ahmad, Mayank Yadav, Himmat Singh.