Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) on Sunday named left-arm pacer Chetan Sakariya as a replacement for speedster Umran Malik ahead of the upcoming Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025 season.
The 25-year-old Umran, who was bought by KKR for Rs 75 lakh in the 2025 mega auction to fortify their pace attack, was ruled out of the tournament due to an injury, the franchise said.
The 27-year-old Sakariya has represented India in an ODI and two T20Is and has played 19 IPL games, claiming 20 wickets. He will join KKR for an amount of Rs 75 Lakh.
Umran has been undergoing rehabilitation at the National Cricket Academy in Bengaluru after suffering a hip injury. It is learnt that he failed to obtain medical clearance to take part in IPL 2025.
KKR had bought Sakariya for Rs 50 lakh in the 2024 IPL auction, but he did not get a chance to play a single game in the previous season.
Defending champions KKR will play their first match of the season against Royal Challengers Bengaluru at Eden Gardens, Kolkata, on March 22.
KKR Squad: Ajinkya Rahane (captain), Rinku Singh, Andre Russell, Sunil Narine, Ramandeep Singh, Harshit Rana, Varun Chakravarthy, Venkatesh Iyer, Quinton de Kock, Rahmanullah Gurbaz, Anrich Nortje, Angkrish Raghuvanshi, Vaibhav Arora, Mayank Markande, Rovman Powell, Manish Pandey, Spencer Johnson, Luvnith Sisodia, Anukul Roy, Moeen Ali, and Chetan Sakariya.
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