Setback for Knight Riders as Hastings ruled out of IPL

In what may come as a major blow to Kolkata Knight Riders, all-rounder John Hastings has been ruled out of the ongoing ninth edition of the Indian Premier League ( IPL) due to an ankle injury.

The 30-year-old suffered the injury during the warm-up match before his side's last week clash against the Mumbai Indians.

Commenting on Hastings' injury, Knight Riders' assistant coach Simon Katich revealed that the former underwent scans after complaining a bit of pain in his ankle, adding that the Australian would now work hard on getting himself fit ahead of his country's West Indies tour.

"He bowled through a fair bit of pain. He had a fair bit of scans after that and he has flown back to Australia. It's a shame to see his campaign end prematurely. He had fitted in really well into the team and he had performed well in a couple of games. Yeah, unfortunately he'll be doing a lot of rehab instead and working towards getting fit for the West Indies tour for Australia," Katich was quoted as saying by a cricket website.

Katich, however, insisted that Hastings' replacement is yet to be confirmed, but added that the paperwork regarding the matter had been sent to the Board of Control for Cricket in India.

"We have sent off the paperwork. Nothing has been confirmed regarding the player concerned. Hopefully that'll happen in the next few days. We have sent out the paperwork to BCCI, we'll just have to see what happens," said Katich.