Rising Pune Supergiants, who have been struggling in the Indian Premier League, on Sunday suffered another major blow as Australia captain Steven Smith was ruled out of the remainder of the league due to a wrist injury.
The debutants Supergiants had earlier lost Kevin Pietersen, Faf du Plessis and Australia allrounder Mitchell Marsh to injuries.
"Steve has been struggling with pain in his right wrist for the last week during his stint in the IPL," Australia's sports science and sports medicine manager Alex Kountouris confirmed.
Cricket Australia said Smith had laboured due to pain in his right wrist for the past week while playing for Pune in the Twenty20 tournament.
"From the information we have so far, this doesn’t appear to be a serious injury but we are keen to give him the time to recover and rehabilitate before heading to the West Indies at the end of May,” CA said in a statement on Monday.
Smith seemed to have taken off from where he left during his century against Gujarat Lions the other night. The 26-year-old smashed 45 off 23 balls to raise visions of a formidable total for Pune but it went in vain as Mumbai Indians outclassed Pune Supergiants by eight wickets on Sunday night.
It was Pune’s sixth defeat in eight games keeps them in the bottom rung with only four points in their kitty. They have lost four home games in Pune.
