The Indian Premier League (IPL) 2020 will be witnessing the first participation of a USA player with Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) roping in fast bowler Ali Khan for the 13th edition of the cash-rich league. As per the reports of ESPNCricinfo, the two-time champions will pick the 29-year-old fast bowler (pending IPL approval) as a replacement for the English fast bowler, Harry Gurney, according to an ESPNcricinfo.com report.
Gurney will be undergoing a surgery related to a shoulder injury and has made himself unavailable for the tournament. Khan was part of the Trinbago Knight Riders’ squad which remained unbeaten on the way to their CPL title win on Thursday. He picked up eight wickets from as many matches with an economy rate of 7.43. He was on KKR’s radar last season as well but no deal could be worked out.
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The pacer hogged a lot of limelight during the 2018 Global T20 Canada, where he was spotted by star West Indies all-rounder Dwayne Bravo, who brought him to the CPL. Khan returned a haul of 16 wickets from 12 matches for Guyana Amazon Warriors that year, the second-most by a pacer in the season.
Bravo, in one of his Instagram stories, posted a video with Khan, Brendon McCullum, and a few more people inside a plane with the caption ‘Next stop Dubai’.
Former Rajasthan Royals (RR) bowler Rusty Theron, who now plays for the USA, player for the now-defunct Deccan Chargers team in 2011 and Kings XI Punjab (KXIP) in 2010. But Theron, who was part of the Royals in 2015, moved to the USA from South Africa in 2019.
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Khan has been known for bowling at an excess of 140kph and is known to have a good yorker. The Dinesh Karthik-led KKR Riders will start their campaign against Mumbai Indians (MI) on September 23.
