The three-time Indian Premier League champions Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) have signed pacer Navdeep Saini to replace injured fast bowler Harshit Rana for the next IPL 2026 season. On Wednesday, March 25, the franchise made the announcement.
Rana has also been ruled out of the IPL after missing the ICC T20 World Cup 2026 due to an injury. After giving it some thought, the team decided to add Saini to strengthen their pace-bowling attack. This came soon after KKR was forced to make yet another change, substituting Saurabh Dubey for injured Akash Deep.
Saini made his debut with Royal Challengers Bengaluru in 2019 after initially receiving an IPL contract with Delhi Capitals in 2018 despite not playing in a game that season. He continued with the team for the next two editions after taking 11 wickets in 13 games that season. After being signed by the Rajasthan Royals, the speedster played in just four games over the course of two seasons before going unsold in the most recent auction.
In addition to representing the Indian team in all three forms, Saini has taken 23 IPL wickets overall. Saini gave a modest remark when asked how it feels to be a member of the Knight Riders family.
“The way we say Kolkata Knight Riders, if I have to explain this to a person, it has a certain feel to it. So, I am feeling very good as a Knight Rider,” Saini said on Kolkata Knight Rider’s social media platform.
Check the announcement post here:
Raw pace added to the Knights' arsenal 💜🔥
Glad to have you join us, Navdeep ⚡ pic.twitter.com/KODibQJpqb
— KolkataKnightRiders (@KKRiders) March 25, 2026Meanwhile, Kulwant Khejroliya has been appointed with the Gujarat Titans (GT) as a replacement to Prithviraj Yarra. Khejroliya made his IPL debut with RCB in 2018, and subsequently played with KKR and GT in the last two seasons respectively.
KKR will start with its IPL 2026 campaign playing the Mumbai Indians on March 29 at Wankhede stadium in Mumbai. Conversely, GT will begin their season on March 31 in Mullanpur against the Punjab Kings who ended up second in the previous year.
KKR updated squad for IPL 2026
Rinku Singh, Angkrish Raghuvanshi, Ajinkya Rahane, Manish Pandey, Rovman Powell, Sunil Narine, Ramandeep Singh, Anukul Roy, Varun Chakravarthy, 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, Saurabh Dubey, and Navdeep Saini.
