Kevin Pietersen not to return to IPL due to injury

Kevin Pietersen sits out the last day of the match between Surrey and Leicestershire on Wednesday

England batsman Kevin Pietersen, who has been frozen out of his national team set-up because of ‘massive trust issues’, will not be returning to the IPL to play for Sunrisers Hyderabad as he had earlier planned. The batsman sustained a calf injury while scoring an unbeaten 355 for Surrey – the highest score of his life – earlier this week.

Pietersen had sacrificed his IPL contract with Sunrisers Hyderabad after being told he would have to score runs in county cricket to pave a way for his return to the England squad, but was later told he had no future with the national team by teammate-turned-antagonist ECB Director Andrew Strauss.

Sunrisers' CEO K Shanmugam had announced that Pietersen would join the team on Friday in Hyderabad. Pietersen’s services would have been a major asset for the Hyderabad franchisee as they press for a top-four place, with only a few league matches left to be played.

More absentees for Sunrisers

The batsman had a scan on his damaged calf in London on Wednesday and returned to the Kia Oval with a noticeable limp. The prognosis was that the injury was expected to take a couple of weeks to heal.

Sunrisers had purchased Pietersen at his base price of 2 crore rupees (approximately GBP 200,000) at the IPL player auction in February. They had agreed to release Pietersen ahead of the season to allow him to press for England selection.

Should they qualify for the knockout stages, Sunrisers will also be without their New Zealand pair of fast bowler Trent Boult and batsman Kane Williamson, who will leave after Sunday's game to join the national squad ahead of their first Test against England starting on May 21.

Kevin Pietersen was forced to miss the start of the final day of Surrey's clash with Leicestershire to have a scan on a calf injury.

— ECB News (@ECB_news12) May 13, 2015

Kevin Pietersen has gone from 355* to having his England return blocked and now he may lose the rest of his IPL deal with Achilles injury!

— Dave Bodymore (@davebodymore) May 13, 2015