New Delhi: Kolkata Knight Riders suffered a major setback ahead of IPL 2026 with key pacer Harshit Rana missing the entire season due to a knee injury. The young fast bowler suffered an injury during a T20 World Cup warm-up match and has since undergone surgery, leaving the team scrambling to fill the void.
Head coach Abhishek Nayar admitted that Rana’s absence will be difficult to handle given his importance to the team in recent seasons.“This is a big blow because Harshit Rana has been an integral part of this team over the past few seasons as well as the championship season. He has really grown as a cricketer over the past year,” Nayyar told reporters at the pre-season press conference.“We will always miss Harshit Rana and replacing him will not be easy. But in the past few days, we have looked at a few bowlers to see who is suitable and who can bring out the best in this role. Hopefully, we will get a call in a few days,” he added.KKR tried out several pacers in training to find suitable replacements.
Are there more injury issues for KKR?
To make matters worse, Sri Lanka pacer Matheesha Pathirana is also recovering from an injury but is yet to be cleared for the match, adding to KKR’s concerns.However, there is some positive news about spinner Varun Chakravarthy. Despite his poor performance in the T20 World Cup, captain Ajinkya Rahane has backed him to make a comeback.“I don’t think there is any problem with Varun’s bowling ability… In the T20 World Cup, the opposition batsmen bowled very well against him (Varun Chakravarty). Let’s give the credit to them instead of talking about Varun,” Rahane said.“I think the 10 days of rest really helped him, especially after one high-intensity match followed by another high-intensity match,” Rahane added.With the season about to begin, KKR will hope to overcome these challenges soon.
