Hyderabad: The USA fast bowler Ali Khan's maiden stint in the Indian Premier League, with the Kolkata Knight Riders, has ended without any game due to a side strain that he sustained while playing the Caribbean Premier League. According to media reports, KKR have roped in New Zealand's Tim Seifert as Khan's replacement.
Ali Khan, 29, had also joined KKR as an injury replacement of England fast bowler Harry Gurney, who pulled out of the IPL 2020 due to shoulder surgery.
However, Khan could never recover from injury during the ongoing season of IPL. KKR's chief executive Venky Mysore had said that while Khan's injury was untimely, the franchise was optimistic about his recovery. "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 said back then.
Seifert, a prolific batsman, has proved himself as a fine top order batsman for New Zealand in three ODIs and 24 T20Is with an average of 22.85 and a strike rate of 139.75.
He also played with Khan during Trinbago Knight Riders' title-winning run at the CPL but didn't have too good a time of it, struggling on the sluggish pitches to score just 133 runs in nine innings at a strike rate of 109.91.
