Sunrisers Hyderabad’s senior pacer Bhuvneshwar Kumar was on Monday ruled out of the ongoing IPL with a thigh muscle injury which could also end his hopes of being a part of the Indian team’s tour of Australia later this year.

Bhuvneshwar sustained the injury while bowling the 19th over of Chennai Super Kings’ innings during their October 2 clash here and hobbled out of the field after just one delivery.

“Bhuvneshwar Kumar is out of IPL with a thigh muscle injury. It is probably a grade 2 or 3 injury, which could mean that he would be out for at least 6 to 8 weeks. It might effectively rule him out of India’s tour of Australia,” a senior BCCI official told  on conditions of anonymity.

Bhuvneshwar had been in decent form during this year’s IPL with an economy rate of less than 7 in four games with three wickets.

His injury will be a massive blow to SRH skipper David Warner as he struggles for quality death bowlers in his side which is short on experience.

In case of Bhuvneshwar, he might stay back in the UAE as the Indian team’s physio Nitin Patel is also there as part of the BCCI’s medical team. Being a centrally-contracted player, Bhuvneshwar’s rehabilitation will be entirely looked after by the BCCI.

However, for the past one year, Bhuvneshwar has been mostly out due to side strain and hamstring injuries and only recently made a comeback during the IPL. He had missed the New Zealand tour earlier this year.

With this current injury, his readiness to return to competitive cricket after breaking down every three months during the last one year could raise eyebrows about the injury management process.

India are to play four Test matches during the tour of Australia at year-end.