Day before their match against Royal Challengers Bengaluru, Kolkata Knight Riders on Thursday announced replacement for their Afghanistan mystery spinner Mujeeb Ur Rahman while Rajasthan Royals also drafted senior South African spinner Keshav Maharaj into their squad in place of Indian pacer Prasidh Krishna, who has been ruled out of the entire ongoing season of the Indian Premier League. (Full IPL 2024 Coverage)
Knight Riders replaced Mujeeb with another of his countryman - a 16-year-old Allah Ghazanfar. Ghazanfar is also a mystery spinner and has represented his country in 2 ODIs so far, both against Ireland. He joins KKR for his base price of Rs 20 Lac.
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The youngster has played 3 T20s and 6 List A matches and has 5 and 4 wickets respectively against his name. However, he is yet to take an international wicket.
Prasidh Krishna recently underwent surgery on his left proximal quadriceps tendon and is currently recovering and has been ruled out of the entire season.
His replacement for the Royals Keshav Maharaj, a veteran South African cricketer, has played 27 T20Is, 44 ODIs and 50 Tests and has scalped 237 wickets in international cricket. Additionally, the left arm spinner has played 159 T20s, picking up 130 wickets and can chip in with some handy runs. RR have brought him on board for his base price of INR 50 Lac.
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Both Maharaj and Ghazanfar have never played in IPL.
Kolkata Knight Riders opened their IPL 2024 campaign with a close victory over Sunrisers Hyderabad while Rajasthan Royals also notched up a win in their season opener against Lucknow Super Giants.
Kolkata Knight Riders had earlier replaced English batter Jason Roy with the English wicket-keeper batter Phil Salt. Rajasthan Royals were also forced to announce a replacement when their overseas recruit Adam Zampa pulled out of the season. Royals replaced Zampa with uncapped Mumbai all-rounder Tanush Kotian.
