Before the start of the new season of IPL, Kolkata Knight Riders, who are most troubled by the injuries of their players, have taken a big decision. After Harshit Rana and Akash Deep were out of the tournament, KKR has now signed a new player. Kolkata, which is struggling with the fitness of players and other reasons on the fast bowling front, has selected a player from domestic cricket who has not taken a single wicket in T20 cricket till date. According to a report, Kolkata has signed left arm fast bowler Saurabh Dubey of Vidarbha cricket team.
Did not take wicket, then why did you get the chance?
Cricbuzz report states that the fast bowler was out due to a back injury. sky lamp Kolkata has signed Saurabh Dubey in place of him. However, the team has not yet announced it officially. 28-year-old Saurabh Dubey is a part of Vidarbha in domestic cricket, for which he has played a total of 11 matches in List-A and T20 formats and has taken 16 wickets. But out of these, he has played 3 matches in T20 format and has not taken a single wicket.
Now the question is why has KKR bought him despite this? One reason for this is that Saurabh Dubey is a left-arm fast bowler, which Kolkata was missing because the team was forced to release Bangladeshi left arm pacer Mustafizur Rahman. Second reason, Saurabh Dubey is a tall bowler like Mustafizur and he gets good bounce. Also, he can swing the ball in both directions. Not only this, he has taken 16 wickets in only 8 matches in ODI format. In such a situation, ignoring the failure of just 3 matches is not a big deal.
This special connection is also with Dravid
Saurabh Dubey also has a special connection with Team India’s former head coach Rahul Dravid. Before becoming the coach of the Indian team, when Dravid was the director of the National Cricket Academy, he had gone as the coach of India A in the Emerging Asia Cup 2019. Saurabh was the main bowler of the team in this tournament and he took 7 wickets in 3 matches.
Well, this is not the first time that Saurabh Dubey is entering IPL. Earlier, he was a part of Sunrisers Hyderabad in 2022 but was out of the tournament midway due to injury. Due to this he could not even make his debut. Now he is making a comeback after 4 years. Last season, he was among the net bowlers of Mumbai Indians.