Watch: KKR reportedly calls uncapped Tamil Nadu big-hitter for trails ahead of IPL 2026

Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) is in search of exciting uncapped talents ahead of the 2026 season of the Indian Premier League (IPL 2026). It is reported that Sunny Sandhu, a TNPL star, was in the trial arranged by the multi-time league champion franchise in Chennai. 

Sunny Sandhu, a pace bowling all-rounder, emerged as a watch-out talent during this year's Tamil Nadu Premier League. The emerging all-rounder played multiple well-impacted knocks during the season with the Salem Spartans. He performed equally well with the ball and the bat. Sandhu showed his hard-hitting skills as a lower-order batter on multiple occasions. 

Ahead of the IPL 2026 mini auction, KKR let go of their star pace bowling all-rounder Andre Russell. It is now obvious that they will try to secure at least one pace bowling all-rounder as a like-for-like substitution. They will need backups as well to increase the bench strength. 

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Sunny Sandhu was at a KKR trial in Chennai ahead of IPL 2026 season

Sunny Sandhu is a 22-year-old all-rounder and can be a good asset if he is able to perform well in the trial seasons. Rather than his bowling skills, it was his aggressive batting that attracted cricket fans' attention. As of now, Sandhu is inexperienced in the higher stage of franchise cricket. 

One of the best moments of Sandhu in TNPL 2025 was during the Salem vs. Trichy match at Coimbatore when he scored 45 runs as a middle-order batter and took a couple of wickets to secure a much-needed win. Against Chepauk Super Gillies, the all-rounder scored 30 off 18 with one boundary and a couple of over-boundaries. 

KKR Retained Players: Ajinkya Rahane, Angkrish Raghuvanshi, Anukul Roy, Harshit Rana, Manish Pandey, Ramandeep Singh, Rinku Singh, ⁠Rovman Powell, Sunil Narine, Umran Malik, Vaibhav Arora, Varun Chakaravarthy

Available Slots: 13 (including 6 Overseas slots)

Available Purse: INR 64.3 Crore.

Watch Sunny Sandhu's batting in this video: