Varun Chakravarthy missed out as Kolkata Knight Riders take on Royal Challengers Bengaluru in their 11th match of the Indian Premier League 2026 at the Shaheed Veer Narayan Singh International Stadium, Raipur on Wednesday, May 13. Chakravarthy was a major doubt for this game after having picked up a leg injury.ย
KKR skipper Ajinkya Rahane confirmed at the toss that Chakravarthy misses out due to a ‘niggle’ as fast bowler Saurabh Dubey makes his IPL debut. “The last four games have been good for us. For us it’s taking one game at a time. It’s about respecting the opponents and winning those small moments. This format is all about that; winning those small moments is important. Varun is out due to a niggle, Saurabh comes in for him,” Rahane said at the toss.
KKR assistant coach had casted doubt over Varun’s participation
Charavarthy was seen walking with a stick in the hotel ahead of KKR’s clash against the RCB. Meanwhile, KKR assistant coach Shane Watson had cast doubt over Chakravarthy’s participation in the Raipur game. “Varun Chakravarthy is still being monitored at the moment,” Watson said on the spinner during the pre-match press conference.ย
“Obviously, heโs been sore. In the last two games, he was in a lot of pain. Even though he still bowled incredibly well, to see where he started off in the season to where heโs ended up getting to has been incredible to see,” he added.
RCB make one change as Venkatesh comes in
RCB made one change to their team from their fixture. Venkatesh Iyer came in for West Indies all-rounder Romario Shepherd, who has not made an impact this season. Meanwhile, RCB have also brought in Jacob Duffy as Devdutt Padikkal is in the impact subs, set to come in when his team bats.ย
RCB won the toss and opted to bowl first. “Obviously, we’ll bowl first. I think it’s a similar wicket that we played last match, so I think it will behave in the same way. And it should be pretty good also, hard surface, but we’ll try to keep them under pressure while chasing. (The colour of the surface looks a little dark.) I don’t think so. As I feel, both the wickets are pretty much the same, and there must be a variable bounce, but let’s see how it goes. I think it was a tight match (vs MI), but I think it was a good game for us to be in the game, and everyone has a lot of confidence after the way we played the last game. It was a tight game, but everyone is looking good and looking forward to it,” Patidar said at the toss.