Kolkata Knight Riders name injured Umran Malik's replacement for IPL 2025

Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) have named Chetan Sakariya as injured Umran Malik's replacement for the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025 season. KKR are the defending champions, beating the SunRisers Hyderabad in the final in 2024.

According to a statement released on IPL's official website, Umran has been ruled out of the 2025 season due to an injury. Sakariya, who had his base price at ₹75 lakh, was unsold during the mega auction. He has now been signed by the Kolkata Knight Riders at the same price as a replacemet player.

Interestingly, Sakariya was a part of KKR's squad in IPL 2024 as well after being picked for ₹50 lakh. However, he did not get an opportunity to play in a single game and was released by the franchise ahead of the mega auction.

Moreover, the left-arm pacer was roped in by KRR just recently as a net bowler for IPL 2025 and now makes it to their main squad, replacing Umran Malik. The franchise had acquired the services of Umran for ₹75 lakh at the mega auction last year.

The defending champions also made an announcement with a post on X (formerly Twitter).

"🚨𝗖𝗵𝗲𝘁𝗮𝗻 𝗦𝗮𝗸𝗮𝗿𝗶𝘆𝗮 𝗷𝗼𝗶𝗻𝘀 𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝘀𝗾𝘂𝗮𝗱 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗧𝗔𝗧𝗔 𝗜𝗣𝗟 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟱 The left-arm fast bowler is all set to don Purple & Gold for another year 💜💛," the tweet read.

KKR will begin their title defense against the Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) in the opening match of the 2025 season on Saturday, March 22 at Eden Gardens.

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Chetan Sakariya's IPL career

Chetan Sakariya has previously played in the IPL despite not playing a single match in the 2024 season. His first season was for the Rajasthan Royals in 2021 where he picked up 14 wickets from as many games.

However, he was released by the Royals and made a move to the Delhi Capitals for the 2022 season. The 27-year-old played only three games that season for Delhi, picking up three wickets. He represented them in 2023 edition as well, but played only two games and scalped three wickets.

Overall, Sakariya has played 19 IPL games and has bagged 20 wickets at an average of 29.95 with an economy rate of 8.43. He has also played one ODI and two T20Is for India.