{"id":9165,"date":"2026-04-27T04:54:26","date_gmt":"2026-04-26T23:24:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/banitoday.com\/ipl-2026-no-place-for-matheesha-pathirana-as-lsg-opt-to-bowl-vs-kkr-in-bottom-table-clash-cricket-news\/"},"modified":"2026-04-27T04:54:26","modified_gmt":"2026-04-26T23:24:26","slug":"ipl-2026-no-place-for-matheesha-pathirana-as-lsg-opt-to-bowl-vs-kkr-in-bottom-table-clash-cricket-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/banitoday.com\/hi\/ipl-2026-no-place-for-matheesha-pathirana-as-lsg-opt-to-bowl-vs-kkr-in-bottom-table-clash-cricket-news\/","title":{"rendered":"IPL 2026: No place for Matheesha Pathirana as LSG opt to bowl vs KKR in bottom-table clash | Cricket News"},"content":{"rendered":"


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Lucknow Super Giants’ captain Rishabh Pant, right, and Kolkata Knight Riders’ captain Ajinkya Rahane (PTI photo)<\/span><\/div>\n<\/section>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Matheesha Pathirana<\/a>\u2019s much-anticipated return will have to wait, as Kolkata Knight Riders left the Sri Lankan pacer out of the playing XI for their crucial clash against Lucknow Super Giants at the Ekana Stadium.Despite being available, KKR opted for continuity. Captain Ajinkya Rahane<\/a> said, \u201cWe were looking to bat first. At the moment, it\u2019s important to see how we are playing as a team. The bowling unit is coming together nicely. The reason we wanted to bat first was to give freedom to our batting unit so they can bat freely.\u201d He added that the break helped the side reset. \u201cThe week off was really important. We sat together, reflected on the last seven games and areas to improve.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\u2018We haven\u2019t played good cricket\u2019 – Mahela Jayawardene after MI\u2019s biggest IPL loss vs CSK<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Rishabh Pant<\/a> won the toss and chose to bowl, stressing the need for clarity in execution. \u201cWe want to put the opposition on the back foot first and find answers as a batting group,\u201d he said. Pant also confirmed one change, with George Linde coming in. \u201cWe have a lot of leaders in the group. We are close to finding our way. We just need to stick together.\u201dWith both teams sitting at the bottom of the table, the decision to leave out Pathirana adds another layer of intrigue in a must-win contest.Teams:<\/span>Kolkata Knight Riders<\/span> (Playing XI): Ajinkya Rahane(c), Tim Seifert(w), Cameron Green, Angkrish Raghuvanshi, Rovman Powell, Rinku Singh, Sunil Narine, Ramandeep Singh, Anukul Roy, Vaibhav Arora, Kartik TyagiLucknow Super Giants<\/span> (Playing XI): Aiden Markram, Mitchell Marsh, Rishabh Pant(w\/c), Nicholas Pooran, Ayush Badoni, Mukul Choudhary, George Linde, Mohammed Shami, Prince Yadav, Digvesh Singh Rathi, Mohsin Khan<\/div>\n


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Lucknow Super Giants’ captain Rishabh Pant, right, and Kolkata Knight Riders’ captain Ajinkya Rahane (PTI photo) Matheesha Pathirana\u2019s much-anticipated return will have to wait, as Kolkata Knight Riders left the Sri Lankan pacer out of the playing XI for their crucial clash against Lucknow Super Giants at the Ekana Stadium.Despite being available, KKR opted for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9166,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[263],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-9165","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports"},"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/banitoday.com\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9165","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/banitoday.com\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/banitoday.com\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/banitoday.com\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/banitoday.com\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9165"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/banitoday.com\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9165\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/banitoday.com\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9166"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/banitoday.com\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9165"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/banitoday.com\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9165"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/banitoday.com\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9165"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}