Veteran Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) batter Ajinkya Rahane is set to leave the Indian Premier League (IPL) bio-bubble after being ruled out of the the remaining tournament due to a grade III hamstring injury.
The injury will rule out Rahane from contention for selection for the upcoming tour of England where the Rohit Sharma-led Indian team are set to play a one-off Test match before the white-ball series.
The 33-year-old is said to have suffered the injury during KKR’s 54-run win vs Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) on Saturday at the Maharashtra Cricket Association (MCA) Stadium in Pune. According to Cricbuzz, Rahane will soon report to the National Cricket Academy (NCA) and require rehab which may need more than four weeks.
Raahne has had a below-par run in the 2022 IPL so far and made just 133 runs in 7 matches at an average of 19.00. He was dropped from the playing XI after five matches but KKR’s poor-form and instability in the top-order earned him a comeback vs Mumbai Indians last week.
The two-time champions’ have just one match remaining in IPL 2022 in which they will face Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) at the DY Patil Stadium on Wednesday (May 18). The clash is a must-win game for KKR and a defeat will eliminate them from the tournament. On the other hand, a win will leave them dependent on other results to qualify.
Talking about India’s tour of England, Rahane always faced an uphill battle to make the squad after being dropped from the Test side for India’s home series vs Sri Lanka in March in the aftermath of back-to-back dismal tours of England and South Africa over the last year. Both Shreyas Iyer and Hanuma Vihari impressed in the middle-order and are expected to keep their places in the red-ball squad that travels to England.
