Massive blow to KKR, two-time IPL winner informs franchise of his unavailability for entire season

Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) have dealt with a major blow as their star all-rounder Shakib Al Hasan has pulled out of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2023.  

It has been learnt that Shakib has informed the Kolkata-based franchise of his unavailability for the sixteenth season of the glitzy league due to his International commitments and personal issues. Notably Bangladesh are slated to play a one-off Test against Ireland which is scheduled to be played from April 4 to April 8 at the Shere Bangla Stadium in Dhaka.

KKR can suffer a doubly whammy as doubt lingers on the unavailability of another Bangladesh's player Litton Das who will be playing the one-off Test against Ireland. However, there is no official statement on him for now. Last week it was announced that the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) has not given the NOC clearance to Shakib and fellow teammate Litton Das to play in the IPL, as the Test match against Ireland was looming around. However, Litton is expected to join the KKR squad after the conclusion of the Test match. It will be a headache for KKR to start looking for Shakib's replacement for the rest of IPL 2023's season.

Shakib and Litton both were bought by KKR in the IPL 2023 auction last year. Shakib was roped in for his base price INR 1.5 crore, while Litton was bought for his base price INR 50 lakh.

IPL 2023 CSK vs LSG Live score

Shakib's unavailability has only added to KKR's injury woes, as the Kolkata-based franchise are already poised to miss their captain Shreyas Iyer for the entirety of the season. New Zealand pacer Lockie Ferguson is also injured and didn't take part in the first match.
 

As far as KKR's campaign in the IPL 2023, they suffered a seven-run defeat at the hands of Punjab Kings (PBKS) via DLS method in a rain-hindered match.

KKR's full squad for IPL 2023:

Shreyas Iyer, Nitish Rana (Captain), Rahmanullah Gurbaz, Venkatesh Iyer, Andre Russell, Sunil Narine, Shardul Thakur, Lockie Ferguson, Umesh Yadav, Tim Southee, Harshit Rana, Varun Chakravarthy, Anukul Roy, Rinku Singh, Narayan Jagadeesan, Vaibhav Arora, Suyash Sharma, David Weise, Kulwant Khejrolia, Mandeep Singh, Litton Das.

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