Why is Mustafizur Rahman not playing in MI vs KKR clash of IPL 2026?
Mustafizur Rahman was picked by KKR in IPL 2026 auction.
Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) kicked off their journey in Indian Premier League 2026 on March 29 (Sunday). The Ajinkya Rahane & Co. are facing Mumbai Indians (MI) at Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai.
KKR suffered quite a few setbacks ahead of the tournament as pacer Harshit Rana was ruled out due to a knee injury. Akash Deep will miss the tournament due to a back injury. Pacer Matheesha Pathirana is set to miss the initial games as he continues to recover from a calf injury.
Coming to the match 2 of IPL 2026, MI won the toss and opted to bowl first in the match. The attention after that turned towards Mustafizur Rahman, who was not part of KKR’s playing XI in the encounter. He was picked by the franchise for INR 9.20 crore in the mini-auction.
Why is Mustafizur Rahman not playing MI vs KKR match?
Notably, Rahman’s addition to KKR squad created a big controversy. In January, many fans slammed the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) for playing Bangladesh players in the IPL due growing violence against Hindu minorities in Bangladesh.
The India-Bangladesh political ties were affected early this year after the murder of an Indian businessman in Bangladesh. To respect the sentiments of the fans, BCCI instructed KKR to release Rahman from their squad.
The decision also led to strained relations between BCCI and Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB). Later, Rahman joined PSL 2026.
KKR replaced him with Zimbabwe pacer Blessing Muzarabani. Moreover, Navdeep Saini and Saurabh Dubey have replaced Rana and Akash in their squad.
MI vs KKR playing 11’s of both teams:
Mumbai Indians: Rohit Sharma, Ryan Rickelton (wk), Tilak Varma, Hardik Pandya(c), Sherfane Rutherford, Naman Dhir, Shardul Thakur, Mayank Markande, AM Ghazanfar, Trent Boult, Jasprit Bumrah
Kolkata Knight Riders: Finn Allen, Ajinkya Rahane (C), Cameron Green, Angkrish Raghuvanshi(w), Rinku Singh, Ramandeep Singh, Anukul Roy, Sunil Narine, Varun Chakaravarthy, Vaibhav Arora, Blessing Muzarabani.
Why is Mustafizur Rahman not part of IPL 2026?
Mustafizur Rahman was released from KKR squad on the BCCI’s instructions.
What is the venue of MI vs KKR match?
The venue of the encounter is Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai.
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Vikas Singh Derek is a core cricket-lover since childhood and has always followed the sport both in his personal and professional life. He started his school life by watching cricket at home with family. Later, he played cricket on the field at local clubs during college. After his Master's in Journalism from Mumbai, he followed his passion by covering cricket news across various digital media. Since 2015, he has been an aspiring sports journalist and cricket content writer with over 50K+ articles.