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Never took a wicket in T20, gets beaten fiercely, who is Saurabh Dubey whom KKR gave a chance in place of Varun Chakraborty

Sanjeev Kumar | May 14, 2026 12:24 AM CST

Saurabh Dubey's debut (Photo-KKR)

Saurabh Dubey: In the 57th match of IPL 2026, Kolkata Knight Riders took a surprising decision and included a bowler in the team who never took a wicket in T20 cricket. This bowler also got a place in place of Varun Chakraborty who was injured in the last match. The name of this bowler is Saurabh Dubey who is a left arm fast bowler. This player plays domestic cricket for Vidarbha and will be seen in IPL for the first time. Let us tell you who is Saurabh Dubey on whom KKR has shown so much trust.

Who is Saurabh Dubey?

Saurabh Dubey is a left-arm fast bowler from Vidarbha and is known for his accurate length and ability to swing the new ball. This 28 year old player has so far got a chance only in white ball cricket. This player has been successful in taking 16 wickets in 8 List A matches for Vidarbha but till now he has not got any success in T20 cricket. Dubey has played 3 matches so far and has not got any success in all three. Not only this, his economy rate is also 12.10 runs per over. However, despite this performance, he is considered a very talented player. This is the reason why he was included in the IPL team first by Sunrisers Hyderabad and then by Kolkata Knight Riders.

Sunrisers Hyderabad did not give a chance

Saurabh Dubey gained recognition on the basis of his consistently good performance in domestic competitions, due to which Sunrisers Hyderabad first gave him a chance in the IPL. But he could not play even a single match. For the 2026 season, Kolkata Knight Riders signed him as a replacement for Akash Deep, who was ruled out due to injury. Now KKR has given him a chance in the team.

Kolkata team

Ajinkya Rahane, Finn Allen, Cameron Green, Angkrish Raghuvanshi, Rovman Powell, Manish Pandey, Rinku Singh, Sunil Narine, Anukul Roy, Vaibhav Arora and Karthik Tyagi. Saurabh Dubey (Impact Player)

RCB's playing eleven

Jacob Bethal, Virat Kohli, Rajat Patidar, Jitesh Sharma, Tim David, Venkatesh Iyer, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Krunal Pandya, Rasikh Salaam, Jacob Duffy, Josh Hazlewood. Devdutt Padikkal (Impact Player)

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