Kolkata Knight Riders kept their IPL 2026 playoff hopes alive with a win over Mumbai Indians at Eden Gardens. After the match, assistant coach Shane Watson revealed that spinner Varun Chakravarthy played the match while nursing an injury, while Angkrish Raghuvanshi suffered a concussion and felt dizzy following an on-field collision during the game.
Notably, Varun has reportedly been dealing with a hairline fracture in his left foot. Despite the issue, the mystery spinner has remained available during the most crucial phase of Kolkata’s campaign. Against Mumbai Indians, the 34-year-old bowled four controlled overs for 28 runs, helping restrict the visitors on a difficult batting surface even though he finished wicketless.
“Well, I'm not exactly sure of where he is on his rehab journey at the moment. All I do know is he's obviously playing through a bit of pain at the moment, which just shows how brave he is, how much he wants to be here to be able to contribute for KKR, and he's still bowling beautifully,” Watson said in the post-match conference.
The former Australia all-rounder also praised Varun’s turnaround after a difficult beginning to the season.
“It's been brilliant to be able to see [Varun's] turnaround from the first few games of the season [he had none for 105 after the first three games before getting on a roll], to then the impact he's been able to consistently have every single game. And we are so lucky to be able to have someone of Varun's skill and also his desperation to be able to be here, and to play for KKR, because with the pain that he's managing, he could have easily just said, 'look, I don't want to be a part of this, I'm just going to go and rest it'. So we're very fortunate that he's all in, and he's done a brilliant job again tonight,” he added.
The BCCI is understood to be monitoring Varun’s condition through its Centre of Excellence, though franchises continue to oversee injury management during the IPL season.
What happened with Raghuvanshi?
On the other hand, the night became more concerning for KKR when Varun collided with Raghuvanshi while attempting a catch during the Mumbai innings. The youngster later left the field and did not return to bat. He was replaced by Tejasvi Yadav.
“Angkrish, unfortunately... he ran a long way to be able to try and get that catch. And unfortunately, the collision that he had with Varun Chakravarthy meant that he ended up having some neck pain, a bit of dizziness and a headache within a couple of overs of that as well,” Watson said.
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