Shreyas Iyer's Kolkata Knight Riders received a major blow as their lead pacer Pat Cummins has been ruled out of the remaining games of IPL 2022 on Friday. Cummins suffered a hip injury in the match against Mumbai Indians. The Australian pacer will head back to Sydney to rest the injury.
Anything to distract us from working out in the gym @ShreyasIyer15 pic.twitter.com/OIM3kmA4eu
— Pat Cummins (@patcummins30) May 5, 2022
This is a big blow for KKR team management as Pat was looking in good rhythm in the last few matches where he team up with Tim Southee to provide his team with wickets upfront. Cummins had seven wickets to his name in five games this season. He was also handy with the bat as he had scored a match-winning fifty against Mumbai Indians.
Cummins’ injury isn’t too serious and he’s expected to regain full fitness within a couple of weeks. Cricket Australia rested Cummins for their upcoming T20I series against Sri Lanka next month, thus Pat Cummins' fitness issue will not hamper the Australian cricket team. He will be back with the national side for ODI and Test tour of Sri Lanka.
"Cummins had been managing the niggle through the IPL but, with Kolkata only having an outside chance of making the playoffs, he will complete his rehabilitation at home before flying out for the ODI and Test legs of next month's Sri Lanka tour," said the report.
In IPL 2022, Cummins featured in five matches for Kolkata, where he set the tournament alight with a record 14-ball half-century to be unbeaten on 56 against Mumbai Indians in Pune after recording figures of 2/49. But poor showings with the ball meant Cummins didn't turn out for Kolkata till the return match against Mumbai came on Monday, picking 3/22 in a 52-run win.
Overall, Cummins picked seven wickets in five matches of IPL 2022, at an economy rate of 10.68 while averaging 30.28. "Cummins' recovery is only expected to take a fortnight. It had already been announced he would miss the three T20 Internationals that begin the six-week long tour of Sri Lanka," further said the report.
Cummins had entered IPL 2022 on the back of leading Australia to a historic 1-0 Test series win in Pakistan. In the third and final Test at Lahore, Cummins picked figures of 5/56 and 3/23 in Lahore to play a crucial hand in Australia winning the match by 115 runs and emerge victorious in the series.
Kolkata's next match in IPL 2022 will be against Sunrisers Hyderabad at the MCA Stadium in Pune on Saturday.
