Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) were handed a big blow with all-rounder Washington Sundar ruled out of the remainder of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2023 due to hamstring injury. Sundar had picked up his first wickets of the season, in the last match against Delhi Capitals in Hyderabad – three of them coming in the same over.

SRH took to Twitter to announce his exclusion. “Washington Sundar has been ruled out of the IPL 2023 due to a hamstring injury. Speedy recovery, Washi” it posted.

Sundar was impressive with the ball as well as the bat against DC in their last match. The off-spinner claimed 3/28 and then scored 24 off 15 balls although SRH went on to lose the match.

_ INJURY UPDATE _

Washington Sundar has been ruled out of the IPL 2023 due to a hamstring injury.

Speedy recovery, Washi _ pic.twitter.com/P82b0d2uY3— SunRisers Hyderabad (@SunRisers) April 27, 2023

The all-rounder has been dogged by injuries in the recent years. Sundar missed most of 2022 season due to injuries as well as COVID-19 infection.

His long series of injuries started back in July 2021 when he had fractured his finger while batting for Combined Counties against Indian team in a warm-up game. He played for county side so that India could test all its players before start of the series.

That injury led to him missing the entire domestic season and then ahead of the white-ball series in South Africa in January 2022, as he was down with COVID-19 infection. In February-March last year, he missed the two white ball home series against West Indies and Sri Lanka because of hamstring injury.

During IPL 2022 in April-May, he split his webbing and missed out on five games for Sunrisers Hyderabad. After an extensive rehabilitation, the BCCI played a role in getting him a county deal with Lancashire last year.

Sundar has played in 58 IPL matches till date and scored 378 runs and also picked up 36 wickets till date. SRH have not announced whether they will seek a replacement for Sundar for the remainder of the season. He played nine matches in IPL 2022 to score 101 runs at an average of 14.42 and pick six wickets at an average of 39.83.

His absence now means that Mayank Markande is the only specialist spinner in the SRH squad remaining apart from Englishman Adil Rashid. However, including Rashid would mean leaving out one of their three foreign recruits – skipper Aiden Markram, Harry Brook and Heinrich Klaasen – from the batting or drop pacer Marco Jansen from the lineup.

Kaviya Maran-owned SRH’s next match is again versus the Delhi Capitals, but this time away from home, at the Arun Jaitley Stadium in New Delhi on Saturday.