KKR's injury woes continue as Akash Deep gets ruled out of IPL 2026

Published - 21 Mar 2026, 15:46 IST | Updated - 21 Mar 2026, 16:08 IST

The worries for the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) ahead of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2026 have just intensified as star pacer Akash Deep has been ruled out due to an injury. The Bengal speedster was roped in by the franchise for his base price of INR 1 crore at the IPL 2026 mini auction. However, he won't get to put on the Purple and Gold flannels just yet.

Deep joins a long list of injury-hit bowlers at KKR. The three-time champions will miss Harshit Rana's services for the entire season as he is recovering from right knee ligament injury. Matheesha Pathirana could also miss the first few matches as he has just recovered from the hamstring injury he sustained during the T20 World Cup last month.

Cricbuzz reported that Deep has been ruled out of IPL 2026 but the exact nature of his injury remains unclear. The 29-year-old is understood to be undergoing rehabilitation at the Centre of Excellence (CoE) in Bengaluru. That is probably the reason why he didn't join KKR's training camp in Kolkata, which commenced on March 18.

"Unfortunately, he is out of the IPL, ruled out for the season," a top official from Kolkata Knight Riders has confirmed the development to the aforementioned cricket news website.

Deep played for the Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) last season after being roped in for INR 8 crore at the mega auction. However, his performance was underwhelming, as he picked up just three wickets in six games at an average of 76.33 and an economy rate of 12.05.

While Deep has impressed fans and experts with his bowling skills in red-ball cricket, especially during India's tour of England last year, his white-ball performances leave a lot to be desired.

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KKR currently have Umran Malik, Kartik Tyagi, and Vaibhav Arora as Indian seam-bowling options. Reports suggest that Simarjeet Singh, Navdeep Saini, KM Asif, and Akash Madhwal are some of the bowlers that are in contention to join the team as replacements.