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New Delhi: The Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) franchise have suffered a big blow ahead of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2026 as Harshit Rana is likely to miss the majority of the season. Ace pacer Rana underwent a knee surgery recently for an injury which he suffered during the T20 World Cup 2026 warm-up game.

As per a report in the Circle of Cricket, either the fast bowler will miss the entire IPL 2026 or majority of the league as he will take some more time in recovery. Rana was part of the T20 World Cup 2026 squad but unfortunately during the warm-up match against South Africa in Navi Mumbai, he had to leave the field after bowling just one over as he suffered an injury to his knee.

Rana replaced by Siraj in T20 WC

Extreme pain led to Rana undergoing various tests which showed that the Indian player will have to undergo a surgery. The Indian cricket board released a statement that he will be unfit to compete at the marquee event and he was replaced by Mohammed Siraj in the T20 World Cup squad.

Though it was not expected that he will take so much time to recover but reports on Tuesday suggested that he is in danger of missing the cash-rich league, at least more than half of the season. Rana needs extensive rehab time to recuperate from a catastrophic knee injury, as per a Times of India report.

‘Rana’s surgery was performed by Dinshaw Pardiwalla at the Kokilaben Dhirubhai Ambani Hospital. He was advised to undergo surgical repair of the lateral meniscus. Following surgery and a period of rest, he will begin rehabilitation and report to the BCCI’s Centre of Excellence (CoE) in Bengaluru. While Rana has missed the T20 World Cup, he is also likely to be sidelined for a significant portion of the upcoming IPL, if not the entire tournament,’ sources said as per Times of India.

Rana, who is one of the key bowlers for the franchise, proved to be their star in the 2024 title-winning campaign with 19 wickets. In the last season as well, Rana claimed 15 wickets.