In a big blow for champions Chennai Super Kings, their opener Devon Conway has been ruled out for eight weeks as he is set to undergo surgery on his injured thumb.

Conway injured his left thumb during the T20I series against Australia which forced him to miss the two Test series against the Aussies.

'Devon Conway has a small fracture in the joint of his thumb. So he will undergo surgery this week and hopefully he will good in somewhere between an eight-week period,' New Zealand Head Coach Gary Stead said on Monday.

Conway is expected to miss a major part of IPL 2024, which starts on March 22.

He is expected to return for action in May and be fit for the T20 World Cup starting in the Caribbean and the United States in June.

Conway has been one of the key performers for CSK with the bat, having scored 924 runs in 23 matches at a strike rate of 141 with nine fifties.