After having lost Harshit Rana for the entire season of IPL 2026, KKR finally named his replacement on Wednesday. The team roped in his Delhi mate Navdeep Saini, who had been training with the team for quite some time now, and was rewarded for his solid showing.
Navdeep Saini joins KKR in place of Harshit Rana
Looking back, Saini has played 32 IPL matches in the past, claiming 23 wickets; has been brought in for INR 75 lakh. The 33-year-old pacer last played in the league during the 2023 edition, for RR. Before that he had played three seasons for RCB as well, with the 2019 season being his best, where he picked up 11 wickets in 13 matches.
Navdeep Saini had a good run during the practice matches for KKR, where perhaps a decision on him was made. In the two matches, he bowled with good pace which seems to have impressed the management. Plus, in him, Kolkata get a decent death-bowling option as well, which was perhaps missing until now.
He is known for his searing yorkers, a must-have for any attack. In fact, one can go back to IPL 2020, where he defended 7 runs in the Super over against MI, for RCB. Another notable feature of his bowling is, he is quite economical. In his T20 career, across 87 matches, he has an economy of 7.56 only.
KKR full squad for IPL 2026
Batters: Ajinkya Rahane (C), Rinku Singh (VC), Angkrish Raghuvanshi, Manish Pandey, Rahul Tripathi
Wicketkeepers: Finn Allen, Tim Seifert, Tejasvi Singh.
All-Rounders: Cameron Green, Sunil Narine, Rachin Ravindra, Ramandeep Singh, Anukul Roy, Rovman Powell, Sarthak Ranjan, Daksh Kamra.
Spinners: Varun Chakaravarthy, Prashant Solanki.
Fast Bowlers: Navdeep Saini (Replacement), Saurabh Dubey (Replacement), Blessing Muzarabani (Replacement), Umran Malik, Vaibhav Arora, Kartik Tyagi.
Kulwant Khejroliya joins GT
On the other hand, another injury issue has surfaced, this time with GT. Their young pacer Prithviraj Yarra has been ruled out. In his place, domestic veteran Kulwant Khejroliya has been roped in for INR 30 lakh. He played one match with GT last year, but was not retained. He had earlier plied his trade for KKR & RCB as well, picking up six wickets in 8 matches, overall.
Cricket
KKR name Harshit Rana's replacement finally, Delhi mate Navdeep Saini acquired for INR 75 lakh
