Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) have roped in USA’s 29-year-old fast bowler Ali Khan, as a replacement for English seamer Harry Gurney, who was earlier ruled out of the upcoming 13th edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) due to a shoulder injury. Following this development, the Pakistan-born cricketer will become the first player from mainland America to feature in this flagship event of Indian cricket.
Khan, who is based out of Ohio, is a regular feature in T20 leagues around the world. Recently, he was part of the Trinbago Knight Riders which remained unbeaten en route to their Caribbean Premier League (CPL) title win. In the tournament, Khan picked up eight wickets from eight matches with an economy rate of 7.43.
Khan was first selected in a USA squad back in 2016 for the Auty Cup and ICC WCL Division Four in Los Angeles. However, In 2018 while representing the Winnipeg Hawks in Global T20 league in Canada, Khan first came into the reckoning at a world stage. With his performance the youngster impressed a lot of people including the Bravo brothers. Then it was Dwayne Bravo who then lobbied for Khan in the CPL and he was eventually picked up by Guyana Amazon Warriors where Khan took 16 scalps in 12 games – the second-most by a fast bowler in the season.
In fact, on his CPL debut, Khan dismissed Kumar Sangakkara with his first delivery. He never looked back following that CPL performance and soon got offers from Pakistan Super League and Bangladesh Premier League. And now finally he is going to achieve his ultimate goal of playing in the IPL. It is believed, Khan with his cutters and slower-ones, will be pretty effective for the KKR on those slow-low UAE pitches.