Varun Chakravarthy’s injury concerns appear to be more serious than initially expected after the mystery spinner missed Kolkata Knight Riders’ crucial IPL 2026 clash against Royal Challengers Bengaluru in Raipur on Wednesday. With KKR struggling to keep their play-off hopes alive, Chakravarthy’s absence immediately became one of the biggest talking points before it came alongside RCB’s surprise decision to drop Romario Shepherd from the playing XI.
Varun has already raised concerns around the KKR camp after he was spotted wearing knee braces and using crutches after the side’s previous match against Delhi Capitals. While assistant coach Shane Watson said a day earlier that the franchise still hopes for the spinner’s availability, Wednesday’s omission now suggests the problem may be more than just preemptive control.
IPL, RCB vs KKR: UPDATE | SCORECARD
And honestly, considering KKR’s current position in the tournament, it would take something significant for them to leave out Varun.
Every remaining game for Kolkata has become virtually a knockout after a poor start to the season, which is further marred by the absence of arguably their most important bowler.
However, captain Ajinkya Rahane did not give further details on the extent of Varun’s injury during the toss and only confirmed that Saurabh Dubey has come into the side in his place.
The timing of the setback could not have been worse for KKR as Varun has only recently rediscovered his rhythm after a difficult start to IPL 2026.
After going wicketless in his first three matches of the season, the spinner bounced back strongly with 10 wickets in the next four games, including a match-winning spell against Sunrisers Hyderabad that played a major role in reviving Kolkata’s playoff hopes.
KKR managed to claw their way back into contention with four straight wins after losing six matches earlier in the campaign. But without Varun, their bowling attack suddenly looks a lot less threatening on the Raipur pitch, who is expected to help the slower bowlers and cutters.
RCB LOSING FAITH IN ROMARIO SHERD?
While KKR were in talks with the Varun concern, RCB also made one of the biggest selection picks of the season by dropping Romario Shepherd in a high-pressure encounter.
New Zealand pacer Jacob Duffy came into the playing XI alongside Venkatesh Iyer as Bengaluru shuffled their combination for a match with major play-off implications.
The move perhaps reflects growing concerns within the RCB camp about Shepherd’s overall impact this season.
As one of Bengaluru’s designated finishers, the West Indies all-rounder looked to consistently deliver explosive finishes in pressure situations. In the recent dramatic win over Mumbai Indians, Shepherd consumed 15 deliveries for just 23 runs during the chase, which almost took RCB out of the game before Krunal Pandya and Bhuvneshwar Kumar rescued them late on.
Overall, Shepherd has scored just 83 runs in seven innings this season at a strike rate of around 125.75, numbers that are underwhelming for someone who is primarily selected to dominate the death overs.
The bowling returns didn’t help much either.
Despite occasionally picking up wickets, Shepherd regularly runs away at the back end of the innings and currently holds a bowling average close to 40, often struggling to execute under pressure.
This perhaps explains why RCB finally decided to make the change with the playoffs looming and team combinations becoming more important.
However, finding the perfect balance between batting depth and bowling reliability towards the business end of IPL 2026 remains the bigger challenge for Bengaluru.
KKR VS RCB: PLAYING XI
Kolkata Knight Riders (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
Impact Subs: Saurabh Dubey, Ramandeep Singh, Tejasvi Dahiya, Navdeep Saini, Tim Seifert
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.
Impact Subs: Cast: Devdutt Padikkal, Jordan Cox, Mangesh Yadav, Romario Shepherd, Swapnil Singh
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– The end
Issued by:
Debodinna Chakraborty
Published on:
13 May 2026 20:58 IST
