Kolkata (West Bengal) [India], March 24 (ANI): Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) is all set to rope in left-arm pacer Saurabh Dubey as a replacement for an injured Akash Deep ahead of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2026 season, reported ESPNCricinfo.

The franchise's CEO, Venky Mysore, made the announcement of roping in the Vidarbha pacer during his side's second intra-squad match in Kolkata.

Uncapped in the IPL, Saurabh has been wicketless in his three T20 appearances and has not played full-fledged competitive cricket for almost two and a half years at the senior level. However, he impressed during six appearances made during the Vidarbha Pro T20 League, taking five scalps before injury cut his run short. He has also been a net bowler for the five-time champions Mumbai Indians (MI). Dubey, 28, rose to fame as the top wicket-taker in the 2019 edition of the Asian Cricket Council (ACC) Emerging Teams Asia Cup.

KKR were conducting trials ahead of their campaign opener against five-time champions on Mumbai Indians (MI) to find a replacement for Akash Deep and for Harshit Rana too, as the young Indian international pacer is staring at a possibility of missing the entire season due to injury. The trials included bowlers like Navdeep Saini, KM Asif, Simarjeet Singh, Akash Madhwal and Sandeep Warrier.

'Head coach Abhishek Nayar has done a great job lining up the potential options and bringing them over so that the coaches can see, be part of our training and practice games,' Mysore said as quoted by ESPNCricinfo.

'Definitely the one who has caught everyone's eyes is Saurabh Dubey, Vidarbha left-arm seamer, tall. The coaches were excited, called up and said, 'This is who we would like to take as Akash Deep's replacement,' he added.

Mysore also said that he has his 'fingers crossed' for their team's marquee signing, Sri Lankan pacer Matheesha Pathirana, who has not joined the camp due to an injury sustained during the ICC T20 World Cup. KKR head coach Abhishek Nayar had said recently that the slingy SL pacer would be available from mid-April.

'We have been constantly in touch with him and in touch with the board [SLC],' Mysore said. 'We want to do the right thing by the player. There is no intention on anyone's part to rush this. All of these things take their time. Hopefully, fingers crossed, it would be too long,' he added.

In the worsening of the team's injury crisis, Akash Deep was ruled out on Saturday as he is yet to recover from a lower back stress injury and is currently undergoing rehab at the Centre of Excellence in Bengaluru, with three months still left to gain a full recovery.

Dubey joins a KKR unit consisting of Pathirana, Blessing Muzarabani, Vaibhav Arora, Kartik Tyagi and Umran Malik as frontline pacers and all-rounder Cameron Green as an extra pace bowling option. In the absence of Mustafizur Rahman, released from the squad last year on instructions of BCCI in the light of atrocities on Hindu minorities in Bangladesh and recent injuries, the KKR pace attack looks heavily depleted ahead of their March 29 campaign opener. (ANI)