Ankle injury forces John Hasting to miss rest of IPL

Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) suffered a setback after fast bowler John Hastings was ruled out of the tournament due to an ankle injury. He has now travelled back home to Australia for treatment. Hastings picked up the injury during a training session before the start of the Kolkata Knight Riders’s match against Mumbai Indians (MI) last week.

He played two matches for the KKR so far. He began with a bang, picking up 2/6 against DD. The 2nd game against Mumbai Indians, however, was a forgettable one where gave away 31 runs for no wickets, struggling through pain to complete his quota of overs.

Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) have requested for a replacement for the fast bowler, which will be announced only after getting clearance from the IPL technical committee., and will be working on his fitness to get ready for Australia’s upcoming tour of the West Indies.

According to ESPNCricinfo, Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) have already begun the paperwork to get a replacement in place of Hastings. Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) assistant coach Simon Katich said, “He bowled through a fair bit of pain. He had a fair bit of scans after that, and he has flown back to Australia. It’s a shame to see his campaign end prematurely.”

Katich added, “He had fitted in really well into the team, and he had performed well in a couple of games. Yeah, unfortunately he’ll be doing a lot of rehab instead and working towards getting fit for the West Indies tour for Australia.”

Talking about the replacement for Hastings, the KKR assistant coach said, “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.”

“It’s someone that we had already looked at in the auction. 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,” Katich said when pushed about the possible replacement.