The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has sternly ordered Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) to cut bowler Mustafizur Rahman from their roster prior to the 2026 Indian Premier League season, in response to the widespread outrage over communal violence against Hindus in Bangladesh. In a message to the media, board secretary Devajit Saikia reaffirmed this.
Additionally, Saikia has implied that KKR will be able to request a substitute player instead of the Bangladeshi cricket player. For the three-time champions, who will not be able to include Mustafizur in their campaign in 2026, this will be a one-time deal. Interestingly, the only Bangladeshi international to sell in the IPL mini-auction was the left-arm bowler.
“Due to the recent developments that are going on all across, BCCI has instructed the franchise KKR to release one of their players, Mustafizur Rahman of Bangladesh, from their squad and BCCI has also said that if they ask for any replacement, BCCI is going to allow that replacement,” Devajit Saikia was reported to have said by India Today.
Finding a comparable replacement for the seasoned pacer is now a challenge for the Kolkata-based team. For those who don’t know, KKR decided to bid for the 30-year-old by offering him a huge INR 9.20 crore signing for the next season. The player will now be free, and the team will acquire another player if necessary.
IPL 2026 KKR squad: Manish Pandey, Rovman Powell, Sunil Narine, Ramandeep Singh, Anukul Roy, Varun Chakravarthy, Harshit Rana, Vaibhav Arora, Umran Malik, Cameron Green, Finn Allen, Matheesha Pathirana, Tejasvi Singh, Kartik Tyagi, Prashant Solanki, Daksh Kamra, Sarthak Ranjan, Mustafizur Rahman, Rahul Tripathi, Tim Seifert, Akash Deep, Rashandra
India’s ODI team will be revealed today.
Saikia added that on Saturday afternoon, the Indian team’s roster for the forthcoming three-match ODI series will be revealed.
“As you know, from the 11th of January, India is going to play New Zealand in a three-match ODI series and today we have a meeting with the selectors and in the afternoon we are going to announce the squad for the New Zealand series,” Saikia continued.
The opening batsman did not take the pitch for Punjab’s Vijay Hazare Trophy Round 5 encounter in Jaipur because Shubman Gill is anticipated to lead the team in the forthcoming series.
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