IPL 2020 | KKR pacer Ali Khan ruled out of IPL with injury

10/07/2020

After Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Amit Mishra, KKR pace bowler Ali Khan became the latest IPL player to be ruled out of the tournament due to an injury. The pacer had taken eight wickets from eight matches with an economy rate of 7.43 in this year's CPL to earn himself a contract in the IPL.

Pakistan-born pacer, Ali Khan, who was the first player from USA to get selected to play in the lucrative league, has been ruled out of the tournament with an injury as per an official statement by IPL. Just recently, Sunrisers Hyderabad's Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Delhi Capital's Amit Mishra were also ruled out of the tournament. The 29-year-old was yet to play a game for his franchise in the season pretty much like Lockie Ferguson as Australia's Pat Cummins has been leading the KKR pace attack.

Notably, Ali Khan was called up as a replacement for Harry Gurney, who had got injured and was ruled out of the 2020 IPL. He was selected after putting up impressive performances in the CPL, which saw him take eight wickets from eight games with an economy rate of 7.43.

“Earlier, Kolkata Knight Riders signed up Ali Khan as a replacement for injured Harry Gurney. Khan became the first USA cricketer to be signed up by an IPL franchise. Unfortunately, Khan has since been injured and will miss the rest of the Dream11 IPL 2020 season,” an IPL statement read.

Khan was very emotional when he was told about his selection in the IPL. "As soon as everyone sat in their seats, [Knight Riders coach] Brendon McCullum welcomed everyone to dinner and then he said, ‘A man from the USA will be joining us in Kolkata Knight Riders. I want to take this opportunity to announce that.

"As soon as he said that, I was just like, ‘Is this real?’ DJ Bravo was sitting next to me and then he hugged me. I started crying because it was so emotional," Ali Khan had revealed earlier after he was picked for KKR.

Kolkata Knight Riders will play their next IPL 2020 game on October 7 against Chennai Super Kings in Abu Dhabi.