The excitement for IPL 2026 is building as the tournament is set to commence on March 28, with the schedule for the first 20 matches already announced. In a recent update, the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) have confirmed that Navdeep Saini will step in for the injured Harshit Rana. Rana, who suffered a knee strain during a warm-up match against South Africa for the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2026, has undergone surgery and is currently in rehabilitation, leaving his return date uncertain.
Additionally, KKR has brought in Saurabh Dubey to replace Akash Deep, who will miss the tournament due to a lumbar stress injury and will be rehabilitating at the Board of Control for Cricket in India’s Centre of Excellence in Bengaluru.
In a touching tribute, KKR also announced the retirement of the number 12 jersey in honor of their former all-rounder, Andre Russell, who has been a key player for the franchise since 2014.
The opening match of IPL 2026 will feature the defending champions, Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB), taking on Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru. Santosh Menon, Secretary of the Karnataka State Cricket Association (KSCA), has confirmed that this venue will host five home games for RCB, along with a playoff match and the grand final.
KKR will kick off their IPL 2026 journey with a matchup against the Mumbai Indians (MI) on March 29 at the iconic Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai.
**IPL 2026 Team Squads**
*Kolkata Knight Riders:* Ajinkya Rahane (C), Manish Pandey, Sunil Narine, Rahul Tripathi, Tim Seifert (WK), Rinku Singh, Rovman Powell, Sarthak Ranjan, Finn Allen (WK), Rachin Ravindra, Cameron Green, Ramandeep Singh, Anukul Roy, Varun Chakaravarthy, Kartik Tyagi, Blessing Muzarabani, Akash Deep, Prashant Solanki, Matheesha Pathirana, Vaibhav Arora, Umran Malik, Angkrish Raghuvanshi, Harshit Rana, Tejasvi Singh (WK), Daksh Kamra.
*Mumbai Indians:* Rohit Sharma, Trent Boult, Suryakumar Yadav, Quinton de Kock (WK), Mitchell Santner, Deepak Chahar, Shardul Thakur, Corbin Bosch, Hardik Pandya (C), Jasprit Bumrah, Ryan Rickelton (WK), Will Jacks, Mayank Rawat, Mayank Markande, Sherfane Rutherford, Raghu Sharma, Atharva Ankolekar, Tilak Varma, Ashwani Kumar, Raj Bawa, Danish Malewar, Robin Minz (WK), Allah Ghazanfar, Naman Dhir, Mohammed Salahuddin Izhar.