Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR), which is struggling with the injury problem of fast bowlers before the upcoming season of the Indian Premier League (IPL), has included Saurabh Dubey in its team. Right-arm fast bowler Saurabh has joined KKR as an injury replacement. He will replace Akash Deep. Akash Deep is out of the entire season. Akash Deep is recovering from a lower back injury. In such a situation, he will not be able to play in IPL 2026.
Who is Saurabh Dubey?
28 year old Saurabh plays domestic cricket for Vidarbha. He has not made his IPL debut yet. He was a part of the Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) squad in IPL 2022 but was ruled out mid-season due to injury. Now he has got a second chance. Saurabh remained unsold in the mini auction held in December last year. His base price was Rs 30 lakh and he was included in the Registered Available Player Pool (RAPP), from which he was selected by KKR as a replacement player.
Saurabh has played for the Indian Emerging Team. In 2019, he played two matches for India in the ACC Emerging Teams Cup, in which he took 3 wickets. Saurabh gets extra bounce from the pitch by swinging the ball.
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How are Saurabh’s figures?
Wardha-born Saurabh has played 8 List-A and 3 T20 matches so far in his professional career. He has taken 16 wickets in List-A, whereas he has no wickets in his name in T20. He played all three matches of his T20 career during the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy 2023, where he did not get a single success.
Waiting for Harshit’s replacement
KKR has not yet been able to find the replacement for Harshit Rana. Harshit is also out of IPL 2026. He injured his knee in the warm-up match of the T20 World Cup 2026. After this he had to undergo surgery and was out of the entire season. It is believed within KKR that there is no Indian alternative of Harshit’s level available, due to which no decision has been taken on his replacement.
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Full squad of KKR: Ajinkya Rahane (captain), Finn Allen, Tim Seifert, Tejasvi Dahiya, Manish Pandey, Rovman Powell, Angkrish Raghuvanshi, Sarthak Ranjan, Ramandeep Singh, Rinku Singh, Rahul Tripathi, Daksh Kamra, Cameron Green, Sunil Narine, Rachin Ravindra, Anukul Roy, Vaibhav Arora, Harshit Rana, Kartik Tyagi, Blessing Muzarabani, Mathisha Pathirana, Prashant Solanki, Umran Malik, Varun Chakraborty
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