IPL 2026: Injury Crisis Deepens For Kolkata Knight Riders As Akash Deep Becomes The Latest To Be Ruled Out

Indian pacer Akash Deep has been ruled out of the entirety of the upcoming Indian Premier League 2026 season. He is the latest pre-season casualty for 3-time champions Kolkata Knight Riders who already have Harshit Rana sidelined with Matheesha Pathirana's participation in doubts.

A lot of fast bowlers have already pulled out of the tournament and Akash Deep, who has had a history of missing games due to injury, will see his IPL curse continue for another season.

Since making his debut in 2022, Akash Deep has been an irregular feature for whichever team he has played for. Not just in the IPL, the right-arm pacer has also missed games for India due to various injuries.

The fact that Akash Deep has played less than 20 matches across 4 seasons, despite being a serious signing for the franchises, is quite unbelievable.

The 29-year-old has played only 14 matches since 2022 and it was only last year that he played the most number of games (6) in an IPL season for the Lucknow Super Giants. He featured only 5 times on his debut season for the RCB, but only thrice across the next two editions due to injury. He has only 10 wickets to his name.

Top Kolkata Knight Riders Official Confirms Akash Deep's Exclusion From IPL 2026

According to reports, a top KKR official has confirmed that Akash Deep will miss the entire tournament, but the nature of his injury is not known yet.

The pacer is currently undergoing rehabilitation at the BCCI Centre of Excellence (COE) in Bengaluru and has not reported for the Knight Riders in any of their training camp.

Akash was bought for his base price (1 cr) in Dubai last year along with Sri Lankan youngster Matheesha Pathirana for a whopping 18 crores to bolster their bowling attack spearheaded by Harshit Rana.

However, two out of these three pacers (Rana and Akash) will not feature in the season while Pathirana is yet to receive a no objection certificate (NOC) from the Sri Lankan cricket board.

It is being said that KKR are yet to find a suitable replacement for Harshit Rana, who underwent a knee surgery after also missing the Indian team's triumphant ICC T20 World Cup 2026 campaign.

As for Akash Deep's replacement, the Knight Riders' management will wait until they get another official communication from the COE. A new player could be signed before KKR leaves for Mumbai for their IPL opener on Sunday, March 29 at the Wankhede Stadium.

Indian Premier League 2026: Kolkata Knight Riders Squad

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