Having already potentially lost their skipper Shreyas Iyer for the entirety of the season, Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) are now sweating profusely on the fitness of talisman pacer Lockie Ferguson, who has been ruled out of the ODI series against Sri Lanka due to a hamstring strain.

Ferguson, who was brought in prior to the auction by KKR (around the range of INR 10 crore in an all-cash deal), was scheduled to feature in the first ODI against Sri Lanka at Eden Park, on March 25, before traveling to India and joining the Knight Riders’ camp.

However, after suffering a hamstring injury and failing a fitness test, he will no longer feature in the ODI series versus the Lankans.

The injury was confirmed by BlackCaps’ bowling coach Shane Jurgensen.

While the extent and the severity of the injury is unknown, KKR will be hoping for it to be a slight strain and nothing more. Should the injury prove to be a serious one, it will leave Tim Southee as the only available overseas seamer for the first few games of their campaign.

Iyer being ruled out of the entirety of IPL 2023 is something that’’s not confirmed, yet, but with him certain to be unfit for the first few matches of the season, the franchise is expected to name a stand-in captain. Nitish Rana and Sunil Narine are believed to be the front-runners, although there’s a chance that KKR might also look at Shakib al Hasan as a potential candidate.