Varun Chakaravarthy (ANI Photo) Kolkata Knight Riders suffered a major setback in their crucial IPL 2026 clash against Royal Challengers Bengaluru with star spinner Varun Chakaravarthy ruled out after sustaining an injury in the previous match against Delhi Capitals. The mystery spinner was seen limping ahead of the Raipur match as he spoke to debutant Saurabh Dubey during the warm-up and strongly hinted at fitness concerns before the draw confirmed his absence from the playing eleven.
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Punjab Kings coach Sairaj Bahutule explains what went wrong against Delhi Capitals KKR captain Ajinkya Rahane later revealed that Varun was unavailable for selection, with uncapped pacer Saurabh Dubey coming in alongside him on his IPL debut. “The last four matches have been good for us. It’s one game at a time for us. It’s about respecting the opponents and winning those little moments. This format is about winning those little moments is important. Varun is out, Saurabh is in,” Rahane said at the toss. Varun’s absence is a huge blow for Kolkata Knight Riders, especially considering the spinner’s role in the team’s remarkable turnaround this season. After losing five of their first six matches, KKR bounced back strongly to enter this fixture unbeaten in their previous four matches, keeping their playoff hopes alive. The spinner has been central to this revival thanks to his control and wicket-taking ability through the middle overs. However, concerns about his fitness were raised during the previous game against Delhi Capitals when he seemed uncomfortable on the field. The match itself was delayed due to rain in Raipur, the draw was finally held at 8:30 PM and play was scheduled to start at 8:45 PM. Royal Challengers Bengaluru won the toss and elected to bowl first, with skipper Rajat Patidar expecting the surface to behave similarly to the one used during RCB’s thrilling last-ball victory over Mumbai Indians earlier this week. “We will bowl first. I think it is a similar wicket to what we played in the last match. It will behave similarly. We will try to keep them under pressure. I think the wickets are basically the same. It will be a variable bounce. It was a good match for us, everyone has a lot of confidence. Every match is important, we are more focused on playing good cricket. Shepher Vendky,” comes Patidar. RCB come into the contest riding on the momentum from their dramatic win over Mumbai Indians, with Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Josh Hazlewood continuing to dominate with the new ball this season. Meanwhile, Virat Kohli came into the game to recover from back-to-back ducks.Teams:Riders from Calcutta (Playing XI): Ajinkya Rahane (c), Finn Allen, Cameron Green, Angkrish Raghuvanshi (w), Rovman Powell, Manish Pandey, Rinku Singh, Sunil Narine, Anukul Roy, Vaibhav Arora, Kartik Tyagi.Royal Challengers Bengaluru (Playing XI): Jacob Bethell, Virat Kohli, Rajat Patidar(c), Jitesh Sharma(w), Tim David, Venkatesh Iyer, Krunal Pandya, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Rasikh Salam Dar, Jacob Duffy, Josh Hazlewood. For KKR, however, the focus has been firmly on Varun Chakaravarthy’s injury, with the team now forced to go through a must-win clash without one of their most influential bowlers.
