Rain washed out IPL 2026 game between KKR and PBKS in Kolkata

Fortune may favour the brave, but on this occasion it seemed to side with the baffling. When Ajinkya Rahane walked out for the toss under a bruised Kolkata sky and chose to bat first, he appeared to disregard both the weather forecast and common sense, leaning instead on statistics. As it turned out, he and Kolkata Knight Riders were spared the consequences of that call, as rain forced a washout of the IPL 2026 fixture at Eden Gardens on Monday. The inevitable no-result handed KKR a crucial, gift-wrapped point – much needed for a side desperate to halt the slide after two successive defeats.

Punjab, meanwhile, moved to the top



of the table with two wins and a point secured in Kolkata.

Rahane's decision raised eyebrows immediately. With rain having lashed the city on the eve of the match and the pitch kept under covers in the lead-up to this weekday encounter, conditions clearly pointed towards bowling first. Punjab Kings captain Shreyas Iyer, unsurprisingly, looked delighted at the toss. While it was true that three of the last six IPL matches at the venue had been won by teams batting first, those numbers felt irrelevant under looming dark clouds. Most captains heed the conditions; Rahane and the KKR think tank chose not to.