Kolkata Knight Riders all-rounder John Hastings has been ruled out of the ninth edition of the Indian Premier League due to an ankle injury, said the team's assistant coach Simon Katich on Monday.
Hastings injured himself during the warm-up session before KKR’s match against Mumbai Indians last week. The 30-year-old bowled four overs and conceded 31 runs, and was the most economical bowler from his team who lost the match by six wickets.
“He bowled through a fair bit of pain during the game,” Katich said on the eve of KKR’s match against Kings XI Punjab in Mohali. "He had fair of bit of scans after that and he has flown back to Australia. It's a shame to see his campaign end prematurely. He had fitted in really well into the group and had performed well in a couple of games.”
He had started the tournament on a high and claimed 2/6 in 2.4 overs as KKR cruised to a nine-wicket victory in the opening match against Delhi Daredevils.
“Unfortunately he'll be doing a lot of rehab instead and working towards getting fit for the West Indies tour," Katich added.
Katich said that the team is in talks with a replacement, whose name they will disclose only after the IPL technical committee has cleared the paperwork.
“We have looked into it. We have sent off the paperwork. Nothing has been confirmed regarding the player concerned. Hopefully that'll happen in the next few days. We have sent out the paperwork to BCCI, we'll just have to see what happens," Katich said.
On being further questioned about the replacement, Katich revealed that they had always been interested in roping in the player. "It's someone that we had already looked at in the auction," he said.
“Obviously, we did get John. He (Hastings) was right up there on the priority list when we went for the auctions. We didn't know if it was going to come through or not so we had a few other names in mind. We'll find out if it comes through.”
Hastings had also dislocated his left shoulder thrice last year, all during training, but opted out of surgery and continued to play in the World T20 and IPL.
The Victorian expressed his disappointment on Twitter and wished his teammates a good luck for the rest of the tournament.
Hastings is the third player to step out of the tournament this season, after Mumbai Indians players Lendl Simmons and Lasith Malinga were also forced to pull out owing to injury.
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