New Delhi [India], March 17 (ANI): India and Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) speedster Harshit Rana is set to miss a major part of the upcoming Indian Premier League (IPL) 2026 season after he underwent knee surgery in February, according to ESPNcricinfo.

The report further added that the right-arm pacer, who had suffered a knee strain during the ICC Men's T20 World Cup warm-up fixture against South Africa, is undergoing rehabilitation with no confirmation about the return of the Indian speedster by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) medical team.

Rana, who won the Best International Debutant award at the BCCI Naman Awards 2026 on Sunday, suffered a ligament strain in his right knee after he pulled out after delivering just one over in the warm-up game. Rana was replaced in the main tournament by Mohammed Siraj, who played just one match, India's opening game against the USA.

KKR will be without Bangladesh speedster Mustafizur Rahman after the BCCI 'instructed' them to release him from their squad due to strained geopolitical relations between India and Bangladesh in December-January.

In place of Mustafizur, KKR, who were allowed to sign a replacement, picked Zimbabwe's Blessing Muzarabani, who gave up his contract with Islamabad United in the Pakistan Super League last week, according to ESPNcricinfo.

It is to be noted that KKR or IPL hasn't made any official announcement regarding Harshit Rana's unavailability for the major part of the 2026 edition.

The three-time champions will begin their IPL 2026 fixture against the five-time champions Mumbai Indians at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai. The IPL has announced the schedule only for the first two weeks of the tournament in 2026, which is to be played from March 28 to April 12.

Kolkata Knight Riders squad for IPL 2026 season:

Ajinkya Rahane, Angkrish Raghuvanshi, Anukul Roy, Harshit Rana, Manish Pandey, Ramandeep Singh, Rinku Singh, Rovman Powell, Sunil Narine, Umran Malik, Vaibhav Arora, Varun Chakaravarthy, Cameron Green, Finn Allen, Matheesha Pathirana, Tejasvi Singh, Kartik Tyagi, Prashant Solanki, Rahul Tripathi, Tim Seifert, Sarthak Ranjan, Daksh Kamra, Rachin Ravindra, Akash Deep, Blessing Muzarabani. (ANI)