Mumbai, March 24 (IANS) Three-time champions Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) have signed Vidarbha’s left-arm fast bowler Saurabh Dubey as a replacement for injured India pacer Akash Deep, who has been ruled out of the IPL 2026 due to a lumbar stress injury.

Further, England cricketer David Payne has replaced the injured Australian cricketer Jack Edwards in the Sunrisers Hyderabad squad.

Payne has played only one ODI for England, having mostly played domestic cricket. He has 233 T20s under his belt and scalped 304 wickets from those games.

“Akash Deep – a right-arm pacer, who has played 10 Tests for India, scalping 28 wickets – has been ruled out of the season due to a lumbar stress injury. He will be under the care of the BCCI Medical Team at the BCCI Centre of Excellence (COE) in Bengaluru for further management of his injury. Saurabh, a left-arm pacer, will replace Akash at KKR. He will join KKR for INR 30 Lakh,” IPL’s statement read.

“Meanwhile, Payne is an injury replacement for Jack Edwards at SRH. Payne has played one ODI for England, in addition to 233 T20s, scalping 304 wickets from the same. He will join SRH for Rs 1.5 Crore,” the statement read further.

Dubey was signed by SRH, the 2016 champions, for IPL 2022, but his time with the team was cut short due to a back injury. He haas not yet debuted in the IPL and went unsold at last year’s mini-auction in Abu Dhabi.

However, because he registered for the auction, Dubey was included in the Registered Available Player Pool (RAPP), allowing any of the ten franchises to select him as a replacement for their injured players.

Dubey, who has participated in eight List A matches and three T20 games for Vidarbha, was part of the India A team in the 2019 ACC Emerging Teams Asia Cup, where currently India’s batting coach Sitanshu Kotak was the head coach. He was also monitored by former India pacer Subroto Banerjee, whose tenure as a national selector concluded last year.

SRH will play the curtain raiser of the tournament against defending champions RCB on March 28, while KKR will face Mumbai Indians at the Wankhede Stadium on March 29.

–IANS

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