'A big blow for sure as he is someone who leads the bowling unit and is also an integral part of the leadership group on the ground.'
SunRisers Hyderabad suffered a huge blow as pace bowler Bhuvneshwar Kumar was ruled out of the ongoing Indian Premier League with a hip injury which he sustained during the match against Chennai Super Kings in Dubai on Friday.
Sources in the team confirmed that Bhuvneshwar will miss the remainder of the 13th edition of IPL due to the injury, which could also end his hopes of being part of the Indian team for the tour of Australia, starting in December.
The India pacer suffered the injury and walked off the field in the 19th over.
"Bhuvneshwar Kumar is out of IPL with a thigh muscle injury. It is probably a grade 2 or 3 injury, which could mean that he would be out for at least 6 to 8 weeks. It might effectively rule him out of India's tour of Australia," a senior BCCI official told PTI.
Bhuvneshwar had been in decent form during this year's IPL with an economy rate of less than 7 in four games with three wickets.
His injury will be a massive blow to SRH skipper David Warner as he struggles for quality death bowlers in his side which is short on experience.
Being a centrally-contracted player, Bhuvneshwar's rehabilitation will be entirely looked after by the BCCI.
However, for the past one year Bhuvneshwar has been mostly out, due to side strain and hamstring injuries and only recently, made a comeback during the IPL. He had missed the New Zealand tour earlier this year.
With this current injury, his readiness to return to competitive cricket after breaking down every three months during the last one year could raise eyebrows about the injury management process.
