The <a href="https://www.mid-day.com/sports/cricket/article/ipl-2026-marcus-stoinis-cooper-connolly-join-punjab-kings-squad-in-mohali-23622569" rel="nofollow">IPL 2026</a> is all set to kick off from March 28. So far, the schedule of only first 20 matches has been released.
Ahead of the league, Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) have announced Navdeep Saini as the replacement player for injured Harshit Rana.
Earlier, Harshit sustained a knee strain during the ICC Men's T20 World Cup 2026 warm-up match against South Africa. He then underwent knee surgery and is going through rehabilitation, with no confirmation on his return.
The franchise has also signed Saurabh Dubey as Akash Deep's replacement. Deep is set to miss the marquee tournament due to a lumbar stress injury and will go through rehabilitation at the <a href="https://www.mid-day.com/sports/cricket/article/dont-bring-bcci-admin-into-this-laxman-sivaramakrishnan-says-retiring-was-his-choice-23621970" rel="nofollow">Board of Control for Cricket in India</a>'s Centre of Excellence in Bengaluru.
The Kolkata-based franchise also announced that they will retire the no. 12 jersey in in honour of their former star all-rounder Andre Russell. The star all-rounder has been a part of the team since 2014.
The opening match of the tournament is scheduled to be played between the defending champions, Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) and <a href="https://www.mid-day.com/sports/cricket/article/ipl-2026-sunrisers-hyderabad-ishan-kishan-speaks-about-his-captaincy-style-ahead-of-season-23622564" rel="nofollow">Sunrisers Hyderabad</a> (SRH) at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru.
Earlier, the Karnataka State Cricket Association (KSCA) Secretary, Santosh Menon, confirmed that the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium will host five of the RCB's IPL 2026 home games. The venue will also host one of the play-off matches and the title clash of the tournament.
KKR will begin their IPL 2026 campaign by playing a clash against the <a href="https://www.mid-day.com/sports/cricket/photo/in-pics-ipl-2026-suryakumar-yadav-trains-with-mumbai-indians-ahead-of-ipl-110305/1" rel="nofollow">Mumbai Indians</a> (MI) on March 29 at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai.
<h2>IPL 2026, Kolkata Knight Riders vs Mumbai Indians: Full Squads</h2>
Kolkata Knight Riders: Ajinkya Rahane (C), Manish Pandey, Sunil Narine, Rahul Tripathi, Tim Seifert (WK), Rinku Singh, Rovman Powell, Sarthak Ranjan, Finn Allen (WK), Rachin Ravindra, Cameron Green, Ramandeep Singh, Anukul Roy, Varun Chakaravarthy, Kartik Tyagi, Blessing Muzarabani, Akash Deep, Prashant Solanki, Matheesha Pathirana, Vaibhav Arora, Umran Malik, Angkrish Raghuvanshi, Harshit Rana, Tejasvi Singh (WK), Daksh Kamra.
Mumbai Indians: Rohit Sharma, Trent Boult, Suryakumar Yadav, Quinton de Kock (WK), Mitchell Santner, Deepak Chahar, Shardul Thakur, Corbin Bosch, Hardik Pandya (C), Jasprit Bumrah, Ryan Rickelton (WK), Will Jacks, Mayank Rawat, Mayank Markande, Sherfane Rutherford, Raghu Sharma, Atharva Ankolekar, Tilak Varma, Ashwani Kumar, Raj Bawa, Danish Malewar, Robin Minz (WK), Allah Ghazanfar, Naman Dhir, Mohammed Salahuddin Izhar.
(With ANI Inputs)

Kolkata Knight Riders will begin their IPL 2026 campaign by playing a clash against the Mumbai Indians (MI) on March 29 at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai

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KKR will begin their IPL 2026 campaign by playing a clash against the Mumbai Indians (MI) on March 29 at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai

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