Kolkata Knight Riders sign Saurabh Dubey as injury replacement for Akash Deep ahead of IPL 2026

Just a few days before the start of the IPL 2026 tournament, the Kolkata Knight Riders team made some changes to their squad. Fast bowler Akash Deep will not be playing this season due to an injury. According to the latest updates, it seems that the team has signed a left-arm fast bowler named Saurabh Dubey of Vidarbha at the age of 28 to replace Akash. Earlier, Saurabh Dubey was part of the Sunrisers Hyderabad team, but unfortunately, he never got a chance to play for the team. This time, it seems that he will be playing.

According to Cricbuzz, Subroto Banerjee, who has closely monitored Saurabh Dubey in Nagpur as a national selector, said, "Dubey is a very talented left-arm fast bowler. I remember when he toured Sri Lanka as part of the Emerging Team under Rahul Dravid's captaincy. He gets extra bounce off the wicket and can swing the ball both ways. This is a good decision by the Knight Riders management."

KKR 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 weak, with no clarity on the availability of Mathisha Pathirana. It is being reported that he may miss some of the initial matches.

There are also doubts about whether Cameron Green will be able to bowl. Umran Malik is prone to injuries and cannot be completely relied upon. KKR will have to look for some more fast bowling options.

Kolkata Knight Riders' full squad: 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, Mathisha Pathirana, Kartik Tyagi, Prashant Solanki, Saurabh Dubey, Umran Malik, Sunil Narine, Varun Chakravarthy, Blessing Muzarabani.