Saurabh Dubey as Akash Deep replacement: KKR have made another change to their squad in the final few days. After fast bowler Akash Deep was ruled out of the entire IPL 2026, Vidarbha's fast bowler Saurabh Dubey has been included in the team.
Saurabh Dubey as Akash Deep replacement: Just days before the Indian Premier League (IPL 2026), Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) have made a change to their squad. Fast bowler Akash Deep has been ruled out of the entire IPL season due to injury. According to reports, KKR has included 28-year-old left-arm fast bowler Saurabh Dubey from Vidarbha in their team as his replacement. This bowler was previously part of Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) but could not make his debut with that team. It is expected that Saurabh will make his IPL debut this season.
According to a Cricbuzz report, Subroto Banerjee, a national selector and someone who has closely watched Saurabh in Nagpur, said that Dubey is a very talented left-arm fast bowler. I remember when he went on a tour to Sri Lanka as part of the emerging team under Rahul Dravid's captaincy. He gets extra bounce from the wicket and can swing the ball both ways. This is a good decision by the Knight Riders management.
KKR had called up Blessing Muzarabani from the Pakistan Super League (PSL) after their main bowler Harshit Rana was ruled out of the entire tournament following knee surgery. Meanwhile, their fast bowling attack remains weakened, as there is no clarity on Matheesha Pathirana's availability. It is being said that he might miss some of the initial matches.
Not only this, but there is also doubt whether Cameron Green will be able to bowl or not. Umran Malik keeps getting injured and cannot be fully relied upon. KKR will have to look for some more fast bowling options.
Ajinkya Rahane (Captain), Rinku Singh, Angkrish Raghuvanshi, Manish Pandey, Cameron Green, Finn Allen, Tejaswi Singh, Rahul Tripathi, Tim Seifert, Rovman Powell, Anukul Roy, Sarthak Ranjan, Daksh Kamra, Rachin Ravindra, Ramandeep Singh, Vaibhav Arora, Matheesha Pathirana, Kartik Tyagi, Prashant Solanki, Saurabh Dubey, Umran Malik, Sunil Narine, Varun Chakravarthy, Blessing Muzarabani.