New Delhi: Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) have suffered a huge blow ahead of the eleventh edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) as star Australian pacer Mitchell Starc will miss the tournament due to injury, Cricket Australia announced on Friday.
The injury also kept Starc out of the fourth and the final Test between South Africa and Australia in Johannesburg and he was replaced by 31-year-old debutant Chadd Sayers in the playing XI.
"Mitchell Starc has a 'tibial bone stress in his right leg'. He will return home for further assessment after the Test and will miss the IPL," Cricket Australia announced on Twitter.
BREAKING: Mitchell Starc has a 'tibial bone stress in his right leg'.
He will return home for further assessment after the Test and will miss the IPL.
Starc was bought for a hefty sum of Rs 9.4 Cr by KKR during the IPL auction which was held in January.
The Australian pace spearhead's bad luck with the lucrative league continues as he will be missing the tournament for the third year in a row. Last year, just ahead of the auction, Starc ended his association with Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) to focus on international cricket, while in 2016, a foot fracture kept him out of the tournament.
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