A high flying Punjab Kings take on a struggling Kolkata Knight Riders in the upcoming game of the Indian Premier League 2026. Kolkata Knight Riders will have their former title winning captain returning to Eden Gardens, in Shreyas Iyer, as Iyer and his boys will look to add to the Knight Riders’ misery and make it three wins out of three.
Here is the preview and prediction for match 12 of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2026 between the Kolkata Knight Riders and Punjab Kings.
Hosts Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) head into their third game of the IPL 2026 season looking lost and yet to have figured out what their best combination is. KKR were low on experience in the bowling department coming into the season but their loss to Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) at home exposed holes in their batting unit as well. Finn Allen and Angkrish Raghuvanshi look like the only positive figures in KKR’s batting unit and KKR will expect Allen not just to go hard from the get-go but also continue on for a while. Their captain Ajinkya Rahane is known to struggle with his strike-rate outside the Powerplay and SRH exposed a weakness against spin. The middle order of Cameron Green, Rinku Singh and Ramandeep Singh haven’t done much yet with Rinku Singh once again wasting an opportunity to show that he is more than a 5-10 balls player, against SRH. There is not much depth in the KKR batting unit with Sunil Narine at no.7 but Narine’s been the most effective with the bat opening.
KKR have batting options on the bench in Rachin Ravindra and Rovman Powell for Green, if Green is playing just as a batter with both Ravindra and Powell providing the team with a bowling option. The bowling was known to somewhere that KKR would struggle with the injury issues and with Varun Chakravarthy, one of their two lead spinners, leaking runs for a while now, KKR don’t look like they have the X-factor in their bowling lineup that will provide breakthroughs. Young Kartik Tyagi and Blessing Muzarabani in his debut IPL season have shown signs of promise but that has been about it for KKR.
Punjab Kings on the other side have two wins from as many games with Shreyas Iyer’s squad slowly looking like a dark horse title contender. Unlike some of the other bigger teams like Mumbai Indians, Gujarat Titans and Royal Challengers Bengaluru, Punjab Kings might not have a host of stars in their arsenal but they have a settled squad who know what their roles are. Most of the Punjab Kings team is the same as it was last year when they finished runners up and the setup of the team is similar. Priyansh Arya and Prabhsimran Singh at the top have been explosive with Arya finding form and getting an explosive 39 from 11 in their game against Chennai Super Kings to set up a comfortable win.
With Arya finding form, Iyer himself also played a sublime knock and looks like he’s taken an aggressive approach to his batting this season. Cooper Connolly is the new name in the Kings’ squad and has been key in both their wins, providing some more firepower at the top of the order. The middle order of Nehal Wadhera, Shashank Singh and Marcus Stoinis hasn’t had much to do yet and could be the only area where Punjab might struggle. The bowling could be another area of concern for Iyer and co. with their opening pair of Arshdeep Singh and Xavier Bartlett leaking runs in both games. Vijaykumar Vyshak and the veteran Yuzvendra Chahal have been the key wicket takers and been economical and on a flat Eden Gardens which grips a bit, Chahal will be the key bowler for Punjab.
The Eden Gardens pitch has been a paradise for batters and a nightmare for bowlers in the last few seasons. Expect another high-scoring game with Punjab Kings starting as the clear favourites against a toothless Kolkata Knight Riders team.
Fantasy XI: Finn Allen, Priyansh Arya, Josh Inglis (wk), Shreyas Iyer (c), Angkrish Raghuvanshi, Cameron Green, Rinku Singh, Sunil Narine (vc), Varun Chakravarthy ,Yuzvendra Chahal, Arshdeep Singh
Venue: Eden Gardens, Kolkata
Winners Prediction: Punjab Kings
Match 11 of the 2026 Indian Premier League season brings us a Clash of the…
Here, we present our preview and predictions for Match 10 of the 2026 IPL season,…
Indian cricketer Abhishek Sharma has been announced as a brand ambassador for Gillette India and…
Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) have announced a renewal of their partnership with boAt, an Indian…
The BCCI has named United Breweries Limited brand Kingfisher Premium Packaged Drinking Water as the…
Indian cricketer Mahendra Singh Dhoni has been announced as an investor in Kuku, an Indian…