Zimbabwe pacer Blessing Muzarabani finding a place in the ICC’s T20 Team of the Tournament recently alongside the likes of Jasprit Bumrah and Lungi Ngidi came as a surprise.

It’s no wonder then that Kolkata Knight Riders turned to him when confronted with a crisis almost a fortnight ahead of IPL 2026.

Rattled by the probable unavailability of both Harshit Rana and Matheesha Pathirana, KKR reposed their faith in the Zimbabwean because of his ability to bowl at a consistent pace and provide crucial breakthroughs.

He has been an all-format bowler for Zimbabwe since 2017. In 89 T20Is, Muzarabani has 106 wickets and an economy rate of 7.24 and has been a regular at franchise tournaments around the globe, featuring in the CPL, ILT20 and the PSL.

This will be Muzarabani’s second stint with an IPL team. He was a temporary replacement player for eventual champions Royal Challengers Bengaluru in the closing stages of IPL 2025.

The 6-foot-8-inch pacer delivered consistently in the recent T20 World Cup and his 4/17 helped Zimbabwe beat Australia as he finished the group stage with nine wickets. He had 13 wickets in the tournament, one behind the Indian pair Bumrah and Varun Chakravarthy.

Muzarabani’s spell against Australia on a sluggish Colombo deck was an absolute wizardry as he produced a masterclass in pace and discipline that saw the Australians skittled for 146 in 19.3 overs.

Muzarabani is adept at restricting the batters’ stroke-making ways with pinpoint yorkers and can be a handful in the Powerplay and death overs. “It’s sometimes hard to know the yorker length but sometimes it just works out on the day,” he had said after his match-winning spell against Australia last month.

He will have to operate alongside Akash Deep and Vaibhav Arora, though Cameron Green is also capable of sending down his quota of overs. Muzarabani can be useful on the hard Eden Gardens wicket and can form a potent force with the likes of Varun and Sunil Narine.

That he can operate in batsmen-friendly conditions will be an added bonus for KKR. His height can always strangle batters and he can extract appreciable bounce on wickets which has some carry.

The Zimbabwean had gone unsold at the PSL auction last month but was roped in by
Islamabad United as a replacement player for West Indies’ Shamar Joseph. He has already informed the Islamabad franchise of his decision to withdraw and play the IPL, a move which has drawn flak from the Pakistan Cricket Board.

The PCB is now contemplating legal action against Muzarabani for signing a
contract with KKR, while pulling out of his deal with Islamabad United.

This is the second successive time that a player initially signed by a PSL franchise has ended up at the IPL. South Africa all-rounder Corbin Bosch was signed by Peshawar Zalmi last year, but was later snapped up as an injury replacement by Mumbai Indians. Bosch’s withdrawal resulted in the PSL slapping a one-season ban on him.

Muzarabani was picked by the KKR after the BCCI in December asked the franchise to release Bangladesh left-arm pacer Mustafizur Rahman.

KKR will be hoping that Muzarabani manages to replicate his World Cup performance to make up for the likely absence of Rana and Pathirana.