Mumbai: Struggling Rising Pune Supergiants were dealt another major blow as batting mainstay Steve Smith was ruled out of the cash-rich Indian Premier League (IPL) following a wrist injury, according to Cricket Australia (CA) on Monday.
The Australia skipper is the fourth player to be ruled out of the Mahendra Singh Dhoni-led side after England big-hitter Kevin Pietersen, South African Faf du Plessis and Aussie all-rounder Mitchell Marsh.
CA confirmed that Smith will return home. “Steve has been struggling with pain in his right wrist for the last week during his stint in the IPL,” CA Team Sports Science and Sports Medicine Manager Alex Kountouris said in a statement.
“We have been working with his IPL franchise Pune to monitor this and unfortunately it has not resolved. As such, he will return home from India for further assessment and treatment ahead of the Tour of the West Indies.
“From the information we have so far, this doesn’t appear to be a serious injury but we are keen to give him the time to recover and rehabilitate before heading to the West Indies at the end of May,” he added.
Pune, meanwhile, roped in former Australia skipper George Bailey as a replacement for South African Faf du Plessis, who was forced to cut short his IPL campaign due to a broken finger.
Bailey, who earlier featured in the cash-rich league representing Chennai Super Kings and Kings XI Punjab, however, went unsold during the IPL auction in February. The right-hander, who had a base price of Rs10 million (Dh551,000) scored 579 runs from 34 IPL games.
Bailey’s inclusion will bolster the Mahendra Singh Dhoni-led franchise, which is currently languishing at the sixth spot in the points table, with just two wins from the eight matches they have played.
“Smith’s (news) been a bummer. He was just coming into his own and this happened,” the franchise’s chief executive Raghu Iyer said. “It is a challenging time. Before we could settle down we lost the core group of players around whom you build a team around.”
“We lost four crucial players, but we are looking ahead. Bailey has tremendous experience and had a very successful season before last. He can contribute to the leadership group,” Iyer said.
Iyer said the franchise is likely to announce Marsh’s replacement in the next two days. They have already signed Australia batsman Usman Khawaja as Pietersen’s replacement.
