Sunrisers Hyderabad pace spearhead Bhuvneshwar Kumar could miss the tour of Australia after having picked up a thigh muscle injury on October 2 during the Indian Premier League game against Chennai Super Kings.
Bhubaneswar is ruled out of the IPL, being played in the UAE, and may also be out of the reckoning for the long out of Australia from November to January. He has played only three IPL games this season.
The injury was sustained while bowling the 19th over of CSK’s innings during their clash here. There was heavy strapping on his thigh but he was in so much pain that he hobbled out of the ground after sending down just one ball as Abdul Samad finished his over.
The extent of Bhubaneswar’s injury is still not clear but it could take a good up to 8 weeks for the 30-year-old seamer to be match ready, which means he will not be in a position to join the team that is expected to fly to Australia from Dubai after the IPL final on November 10.
“Bhuvneshwar Kumar is out of IPL with a thigh muscle injury. It is probably a grade 2 or 3 injury, which could mean that he would be out for at least 6 to 8 weeks. It might effectively rule him out of India’s tour of Australia,” PTI has quoted an anonymous BCCI official as saying.
Bhuvneshwar, however, is expected to stay in the UAE as the Indian team’s physio Nitin Patel is also there as part of the BCCI’s medical team. Being a centrally-contracted player, Bhuvneshwar’s rehabilitation will be entirely looked after by the BCCI.
Bhuvneshwar has been constantly battling with injuries for the past one year.
India are scheduled to play three T20 Internationals, as many One Day Internationals and four Tests in Australia from November last week to mid-January.