SRH vs KKR Toss & Playing XI, IPL 2026: Hyderabad Wins Toss and Opts to Bat First in Match 45

The 45th match of the Indian Premier League 2026 features a clash between Sunrisers Hyderabad and Kolkata Knight Riders at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium. Hyderabad would be high on confidence entering the encounter as they have won five matches in a row whereas the Knight Riders, although inconsistency at the top, have won back-to-back matches. A fully formed unit against an unpredictable team - it will be an interesting fixture!

The biggest worry for the Knight Riders would be their struggling top-order. Constant changes to the batting order hasn't really been fruitful and attempts to include Sunil Narine and Finn Allen at the top haven't worked out well. Skipper Ajinkya Rahane hasn't been among runs and the Hyderabad team will look to exploit it with the ball from the start with the bowlers taking advantage of the new ball and putting the opposition under pressure.

Conditions at Hyderabad are expected to be blistering with temperatures touching close to 40 C with a day-game starting. It might be slightly on the slower side for a used wicket, however, has still produced a decent competitive total. Teams batting first have done well here. However, maybe that will affect the decision on who to bowl first. The wicket might be more of assistance for bowlers in the first half, but a target of 170-180 might still be competitive with the game going down to the wire.

At the toss, Hyderabad have won and chose to bat first. 

Here's what the captains said at the toss:

Pat Cummins:

"We'll bat first. Pitch looks good and it's very hot, we'll bat and post a total. I'm not good at reading the pitches, it looks nice and must be high scoring. I think the thing is the young guys have come in and been fantastic. A lot of the stalwarts as well have really hit their stride, I think we've got over 220 all but one game. So it just feels like everyone's, you know, found their rhythm, built themselves in the tournament, playing that style that we want, which is really positive and everyone's bought into that. (on their winning run) I think that's just the thing. It's very unlikely we're going to win every single game for the rest of the season, but we know this style works and we're five in a row at the moment. So even if there's a little glitch, just keep buying for that style. Nitish misses out. He's got a bit of illness, Smaran comes in for his first game and Harshal Patel replaces Harsh Dubey."

Ajinkya Rahane:

"We wanted to bat first as well. Those breaks so far, it really helped us as a team, re-coupling and thinking about the things which we did right and the improvement point of view. As I said in the last game as well, it's all about winning those moments, small, small moments in this format. Game can change here and there within an over. It's all about being present, being slightly proactive and also winning those moments. I thought hose breaks, so far, definitely helped. We've got two changes. Finn Allen is back in place of Seifert and then Manish Pandey is playing his first game of this season in place of Ramandeep Singh."

SRH vs KKR Playing XI

Sunrisers Hyderabad (Playing XI): Abhishek Sharma, Travis Head, Ishan Kishan (wk), Heinrich Klaasen, Salil Arora, Aniket Verma, Smaran Ravichandran, Pat Cummins (c), Shivang Kumar, Harshal Patel, Eshan Malinga

SRH Impact subs: Praful Hinge, Harsh Dubey, Liam Livingstone, Sakib Hussain, Zeeshan Ansari

Kolkata Knight Riders (Playing XI): Ajinkya Rahane (c), Angkrish Raghuvanshi (wk), Cameron Green, Rovman Powell, Manish Pandey, Rinku Singh, Anukul Roy, Sunil Narine, Vaibhav Arora, Kartik Tyagi, Varun Chakaravarthy

KKR Impact subs: Finn Allen, Ramandeep Singh, Tejasvi Dahiya, Navdeep Saini, Tim Seifert