KKR have had a lot of issues in the last one week and now their pacer Ali Khan has been ruled out of IPL 2020. The USA seamer won’t be able to represent KKR due to a side strain. Khan carried his injury from the 2020 Caribbean Premier League (CPL) where he plied his trade for four-time champions Trinbago Knight Riders, captained by Kieron Pollard. In the IPL, Khan was roped in after England’s Harry Gurney pulled out in a bid to undergo a shoulder surgery. Back on October 7, an IPL media statement mentioned that he would miss the rest of the season.
However, later it was learned that he was making a quick recovery and was training with the team. Venky Mysore, the KKR CEO, also sounded confident about Khan returning back to shape. “While we are disappointed that he injured himself, KKR always does everything to take care of its players and therefore have asked him to stay on and are helping him with his recovery and rehab. Hopefully, he will recover fast,” Mysore had told to ESPNcricinfo. However it has now believed that Ali Khan has failed to recover from his injury and is thus ruled out of IPL 2020 according to ESPNcricinfo.
ESPNcricinfo has reported that New Zealand wicketkeeper-batsman Tim Seifert has been roped in as Khan’s replacement. A report in Stuff on Friday had mentioned that Northern Districts, Seifert’s domestic team, had “confirmed” that the cricketer “was another absentee [for the Plunket Shield] in coming weeks, summoned to the IPL as a replacement player”. Like Ali Khan, Seifert, too, is a limited overs specialist, who has turned out for New Zealand in three ODIs and 24 T20Is, and has an average 22.85 with a strike rate of 139.75. He was Khan’s teammate during Trinbago Knight Riders’ title-winning run at the CPL but didn’t have a great season, struggling on the sluggish pitches to score just 133 runs in nine innings at a strike rate of 109.91. KKR have been struggling of late and are yet to get their winning combination. KKR fans would be hoping that Their new skipper Eoin Morgan would be able to turn things around for them.