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Harshit Rana has been out of action since early February, when he sustained a knee injury during India's T20 World Cup warm-up match against South Africa.
Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) could face a massive setback ahead of IPL 2026 as their star pacer Harshit Rana might miss a majority of the season due to injury.
Harshit Rana has been out of competitive cricket since early February, when he injured his right knee during India's T20 World Cup 2026 warm-up match against South Africa.
Later in February, he underwent a successful surgery in Mumbai, and according to ESPNCricinfo, the BCCI medical team has not set a return date for the pacer just yet. The 24-year-old is currently undergoing rehabilitation at the BCCI Centre of Excellence (CoE) in Bengaluru.
Harshit Rana's injury struggles
Rana had sustained a ligament strain in his right knee. He was able to bowl just one over in the warm-up match against the Proteas. Rana won the Best International Debutant award at the BCCI Naman awards in New Delhi on Sunday, where he was seen walking on crutches.
At the T20 World Cup 2026, which India won, Mohammed Siraj replaced Harshit Rana. Should Rana miss IPL 2026 entirely, he would have missed two consecutive tournaments due to injury. IPL 2026 will get underway on 28 March, with defending champions Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) taking on Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) in Bengaluru.
So far, Rana has played 34 matches since making his IPL debut with the franchise in 2022, and has taken 40 wickets. In KKR’s IPL title-winning campaign in 2024, he took 19 wickets from 13 matches, ranking as the team’s second-highest wicket-taker.
KKR's pace bowling dilemma
KKR will begin their campaign with a match against the Mumbai Indians (MI) in Mumbai on 29 March. At the IPL 2026 mini-auction in December 2025, the three-time champions had signed Bangladesh pacer Mustafizur Rahman for ₹9.20 crore.
However, KKR later released him amid the political tensions between India and Bangladesh. KKR then signed Zimbabwe's Blessing Muzarabani as a replacement for Mustafizur Rahman.
Matheesha Pathirana, another speedster KKR signed, is also recovering from an injury. The Sri Lankan pacer had sustained a calf strain on his left leg during his team's T20 World Cup group stage match against Australia in February.
Apart from Pathirana, KKR's other pacers in the squad are Akash Deep, Vaibhav Arora, Umran Malik, Ramandeep Singh and Cameron Green.
After their match against MI, KKR will take on Sunrisers Hyderabad (2 April, Kolkata), Punjab Kings (6 April, Kolkata) and Lucknow Super Giants (9 April, Kolkata).
The IPL Governing Council has announced the schedule for only the first 20 matches because of the upcoming assembly elections in West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Assam and Kerala.
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