Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) Assistant Coach Shane Watson recently revealed the reason why Angkrish Raghuvanshi was absent during KKR’s run chase against MI at the Eden Gardens on Wednesday. KKR also chased down a challenging 148-run target against MI in 18.5 overs to win by four wickets, but Raghuvanshi didn’t come out to bat due to neck pain.

However, Raghuvanshi collided with his teammate Varun Chakaravarthy during the 11th over of the first innings when he ran towards Chakaravarthy to grab a high catch of Tilak Varma as well. It was the bowler’s catch, but Raghuvanshi reached there but couldn’t reach for the ball on time, and his head collided with Varun, which saw the bowler dropping the catch.

Talking about this during the post-match press conference, Watson said, “Ankrish, unfortunately, 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 bit of a headache within a couple of overs of that as well. So, unfortunately, he wasn’t able to finish off the game. And I know how desperate he was as well. He’s someone who is as tough a competitor as I’ve ever met. So we certainly missed him from a batting perspective.”

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Angkrish Raghuvanshi’s injury led to KKR wanting a concussion substitute, but there was some late drama during the game. KKR had confirmed Ramandeep Singh to be the substitute, but later it was seen that Tejasvi Singh Dahiya replaced Raghuvanshi. Possibly, it was because Ramandeep was not allowed by the umpires as a like-for-like substitute as well.

Reflecting on Varun Chakravarthy, Watson said, “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 to KKR. And he’s still bowling beautifully. It’s been brilliant to be able to see just like the turnaround from the first few games of the season to then the impact he’s been able to consistently have every single game. And we are so lucky to be able to have some of Varun’s skills.”

Varun Chakaravarthy also remained wicketless in the match after giving away just 28 runs in his four overs. He has claimed 10 wickets for his side this season.