IPL 2026: Why are Sunil Narine and Varun Chakravarthy not playing against Punjab Kings?

Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) have made a couple of big changes for the Indian Premier League 2026 (IPL 2026) Match 12 against Punjab Kings (PBKS) on Monday, April 6 at Eden Gardens in Kolkata. Kolkata will be taking the field without their two premier spinners Varun Chakravarthy and Sunil Narine, informed Ajinkya Rahane after he won the toss and opted to bat first.

Explaining the reasons behind their absence, Rahane revealed that Chakravarthy got injured while taking a catch in their last game against Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH). On the other hand, Narine was sick and hence wasn’t available for selection. In their absence, KKR brought in Rovman Powell and fast bowler Navdeep Saini.

“We are going to bat first. Looks a good wicket, little bit of the drier side but it's a very good wicket and slightly less covering of grass as well. It's all about having that belief and confidence. It's about winning those small moments. We are confident. Two changes, forced. Varun Chakaravarthy got injured taking the catch in the last game and Narine is sick. Powell and Saini are in,” said Rahane at the toss.

Both Narine and Chakravarthy haven’t started well in this year’s IPL as the former has scalped just one wicket out of two matches so far, having an economy of 9.85. On the other hand, Varun Chakravarthy has remained wicketless in both games, having leaked runs at an economy of 13.16. KKR last played without their premier spin-duo on April 12, 2019 against Delhi Capitals (DC).

KKR are still searching for their first victory of the season, having lost both their fixtures against Mumbai Indians and Sunrisers Hyderabad. Meanwhile, Punjab Kings went unchanged into the fixture, having won both of their matches so far.

Kolkata Knight Riders (Playing XI): Finn Allen, Ajinkya Rahane(c), Cameron Green, Angkrish Raghuvanshi(w), Rovman Powell, Rinku Singh, Ramandeep Singh, Anukul Roy, Navdeep Saini, Vaibhav Arora, Kartik Tyagi

Kolkata Knight Riders Impact subs: Blessing Muzarabani, Manish Pandey, Tejasvi Singh, Rahul Tripathi, Saurabh Dubey

Punjab Kings (Playing XI): Prabhsimran Singh(w), Shreyas Iyer(c), Cooper Connolly, Nehal Wadhera, Shashank Singh, Marcus Stoinis, Marco Jansen, Xavier Bartlett, Vijaykumar Vyshak, Arshdeep Singh, Yuzvendra Chahal

Punjab Kings Impact subs: Priyansh Arya, Suryansh Shedge, Vishnu Vinod, Pravin Dubey, Harpreet Brar