Abhishek Nayar Confirms Update on Availability of Matheesha Pathirana and Harshit Rana for IPL 2026

20 March, 2026: Matheesha Pathirana will miss the first few games of IPL 2026, Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) head coach Abhishek Nayar confirmed during a press conference. The franchise has been in touch with Sri Lanka Cricket, which said the 23-year-old pacer is expected to regain full fitness by mid-April and will join the KKR squad after that.

“He is with the Sri Lanka Cricket Board for his rehabilitation. The latest update we have is that by mid-April, they expect him to be match fit. That is what we know for now,” Nayar said at the press conference facilitated by JioStar.

Pathirana was signed for INR 18 crore in the IPL auction. He was expected to strengthen KKR’s death-bowling, especially in Andre Russell’s absence. However, he sustained a hamstring injury during the T20 World Cup, ruling him out of the tournament and forcing him to miss at least the first three IPL games.

Update on Harshit Rana

Nayar also shared news about Harshit Rana, who is currently at the BCCI Centre of Excellence (CoE). Once the injury update is confirmed, KKR will announce his replacement. Several pacers, including KM Asif, Simarjeet Singh, and Navdeep Saini, are training with the team, and one of them is expected to be picked for the tournament.

“Harshit is at the BCCI CoE. Once we get the update, we can finalise. Today is the first practice game, and there is another on March 23. We will evaluate players before making an announcement. Most probably, the replacement will be decided before we leave for Mumbai,” Nayar said.

KKR will play their first IPL 2026 match against the Mumbai Indians on March 29 at the Wankhede Stadium.