Defending champions Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) suffered a huge blow ahead of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025 after pacer Umran Malik was ruled out of the upcoming edition due to an injury. Umran Malik burst into the scene after impressed everyone with his pace during his time at Sunrisers Hyderabad.
He represented the 2016 champions from 2021 to 2024 before being released. During the IPL 2025 mega auction last year in Saudi Arabia, KKR bought the Jammu and Kashmir pacer for ₹75 lakh. The three-time champions have roped in Chetan Sakariya as a replacement.
Chetan Sakariya has represented India in an ODI and two T20Is and has played 19 IPL games, scalping 20 wickets from the same. The former Rajasthan Royals pacer joined KKR for ₹75 Lakh.
Having made his IPL debut in 2021, Umran Malik played just three games for two wickets in his maiden season. The 2022 season was the highlight of his IPL career as the right-arm pace bowler took 22 wickets in 14 matches for Sunrisers Hyderabad.
However, his form dipped in the next two seasons, as Umran Malik took just five wickets in nine matches. For Chetan Sakariya, the Saurashtra pacer impressed with 14 wickets in 14 matches for Rajasthan Royals.
In the next two seasons, Chetan Sakariya picked up just six wickets in five matches. After leaving Rajasthan Royals, in 2022, Chetan Sakariya signed for Delhi Capitals before being snapped up by KKR for IPL 2024.
However, the left-arm pacer warmed the bench for the whole 2024 season, which KKR won, beating Sunrisers Hyderabad in the final. In all T20s, he has 65 wickets from 46 games at a healthy economy of 7.69.
Updated KKR full squad for IPL 2025
Rinku Singh, Varun Chakaravarthy, Sunil Narine, Andre Russell, Harshit Rana, Ramandeep Singh, Venkatesh Iyer, Quinton de Kock, Rahmanullah Gurbaz, Anrich Nortje, Angkrish Raghuvanshi, Vaibhav Arora, Mayank Markande, Rovman Powell, Manish Pandey, Spencer Johnson, Luvnith Sisodia, Ajinkya Rahane, Anukul Roy, Moeen Ali, Chetan Sakariya.
