Praveen Replaces injured Zaheer in the MI

India and Uttar Pradesh seamer Praveen Kumar who found no buyers in the Indian Premier League player’s auctions earlier this year. It was quite a shocker as he is someone known for his ability to swing the ball both ways. Praveen is now signed by the Mumbai Indians for the season and he will replace the injured Zaheer Khan in the squad.

Zaheer who played for MI in the six matches and had to leave the over mid way while bowling the final over against the Kings XI Punjab. A side strain that has troubled Zaheer in the past as well forced him to leave the field and was confirmed later that he will be unavailable for the entire season.

Praveen will have big shoes to fill and is his opportunity to make it count as he was off favors soon after being dropped from the Indian team. He could not even feature in the entire Ranji season as injury forced him out from mid way, later he was involved in disciplinary and code of conduct issues getting into heated exchange with opposition players.(also read Injury in the IPL scares to end Zaheer’s career)

Kumar has earlier played for the Royal Challengers Bangalore franchise for the 2008 to 2010 season later was signed for the KXIP in 2011 and remained unsold in 2014. He has played 82 games in the IPL and picked 65 wickets with the economy rate of 7.52.

The last season too was not particularly good for him where he took 12 wickets in the 15 matches econ around 6.62. This is his chance to claim back his lost spot in the Indian ranks, gain fitness and form as well as exposure of playing up against the best of the batsmen in the IPL.