Steven Smith latest Supergiant to bow out of IPL

Another day, another injury for Rising Pune Supergiants. Australia captain Steven Smith became their latest casualty when he was ruled out of the rest of the 2016 IPL with a wrist injury. 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 said. "We have been working with his IPL franchise Pune to monitor this, and unfortunately it has not resolved. As such, he will return home from India for further assessment and treatment ahead of the tour of the West Indies.

"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."

Smith did not miss a match because of the injury while he was in India. In the absence of two other big names, he was the mainstay of the Supergiants batting, bringing up his maiden T20 century too.

Supergiants, languishing in the bottom third of the table with just two wins out of eight games, are waiting to get Australia batsman Usman Khawaja into the country. Khawaja was signed after the loss of Pietersen and du Plessis. No replacement was named for Marsh. They are scheduled to play next on May 5, against Delhi Daredevils in Delhi.