KKR replace injured Akash Deep with former SRH pacer ahead of IPL 2026

Ace fast bowler Akash Deep was recently ruled out of the upcoming Indian Premier League (IPL) 2026. The Bengal seamer had been undergoing rehabilitation for an unspecified injury at the BCCI's Centre of Excellence in Bengaluru.

He was set to represent the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) after being roped in by the franchise at the mini auction for his best price of INR 1.00 crore. However, in an unfortunate turn of events, the speedster would have to watch the impending edition of the cash-rich league from the sidelines.

Harshit Rana, KKR's premier indigenous pacer, injured himself during the warm-up match between India and South Africa ahead of the T20 World Cup. He has been ruled out of the entire IPL tournament. Meanwhile, Sri Lanka's prodigy, Matheesha Pathirana, is expected to miss the first few games in the 20-team event due to fitness issues.

KKR head called up several renowned fast bowlers during their training camp in Kolkata. Akash Madhwal, Simarjeet Singh, and Navdeep Saini were some of the bowlers who were sweating it out in the hope of bagging an IPL contract. However, on Sunday, March 22, it has been confirmed that Saurabh Dubey has joined KKR as Akash's replacement. Dubey, who is a left-arm seamer from Vidarbha, was previously a part of the Sunrisers Hyderabad squad, but he has not made his IPL debut yet.

"He is a very talented left-arm fast bowler. I remember him touring Bangladesh under Rahul Dravid as part of the 2019 ACC Emerging Teams Asia Cup squad. He gets extra bounce off the wicket and can swing the ball both ways. It's a good call by the Knight Riders management," said Subroto Banerjee as quoted by Cricbuzz. 

KKR start their campaign in IPL 2026 with a clash against the Mumbai Indians at the Wankhede Stadium on March 29.

KKR's updated squad for IPL 2026

Rinku Singh, Angkrish Raghuvanshi, Ajinkya Rahane, Manish Pandey, Rovman Powell, Sunil Narine, Ramandeep Singh, Anukul Roy, Varun Chakravarthy, Harshit Rana, Vaibhav Arora, Umran Malik, Cameron Green, Finn Allen, Matheesha Pathirana, Tejasvi Singh, Kartik Tyagi, Prashant Solanki, Daksh Kamra, Sarthak Ranjan, Blessing Muzarabani, Rahul Tripathi, Tim Seifert, Rachin Ravindra, and Saurabh Dubey.