IPL 2026: Irfan Pathan picks his KKR playing XII, includes uncapped India star

Former India all-rounder Irfan Pathan has named his predicted playing 12 for the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) ahead of the start of the 2026 Indian Premier League (IPL) season. 

Pathan has gone with a balance which most modern-day T20 sides tend to follow - having as many as eight batters in the team which include a couple of all-rounders in Cameron Green and Ramandeep Singh.

One of the key talking points from Pathan’s KKR side was the exclusion of the great Sunil Narine in favour of uncapped Tejasvi Dahiya. The 23-year-old lit up the Delhi Premier League in 2025, scoring 339 runs at a strike-rate of 190.45 whilst averaging close to 50. KKR roped him in for INR 3 crore. 
 
Pathan, however, gives his reasons behind the selection and includes a scenario where Narine could replace Finn Allen as an opener alongside skipper Ajinkya Rahane. 

“If you want to play Tejasvi Dahiya then you could open again with Sunil Narine in place of Finn Allen, which is not ideal. Ideally, you would want to play the opener who has already scored runs on this ground. Finn Allen scored a brilliant century, which was in the semifinal, and he also performed very well in the World Cup. So, you would want to start with him,” Pathan said on his YouTube channel.

“However, the challenge of facing spin will remain for him. You could make this swap. If you don’t, and Tejasvi Dahiya is not played, then Sunil Narine would come in at number eight and act as the floater, coming in the middle and potentially moving up to number three,” he added.

Pathan included Cameron Green at No. 3. The Australian comes into the 2026 IPL with huge expectations after being bought for INR 25.20 crore in the mini auction as a replacement for the now-retired Andre Russell.

The former player-turned-expert also went with three bowling options in the playing XI with one another coming in as an Impact Sub. This could be either Sri Lanka’s Matheesha Pathirana or any of the other Indian pacers depending on whether Narine is in the team or not. 

Irfan Pathan’s Kolkata Knight Riders Playing 12: 

Ajinkya Rahane, Finn Allen, Cameron Green, Angkrish Raghuvanshi/Tripathi, Rovman Powell, Rinku Singh, Ramandeep Singh, Tejasvi Dahiya/Sunil Narine, Anukul Roy, Vaibhav Arora, Varun Chakaravarthy.

Impact Player: Matheesha Pathirana (when available) or any other pacer (Akash Deep, Kartik Tyagi, Umran Malik).