NEW DELHI: Australian batsman Shaun Marsh has been ruled out of the rest of the Indian Premier League with an injury, while another Kangaroo player George Bailey made his season entry with Team Pune, Australia's cricket board said Monday.
Marsh, who played six matches for IPL franchise Kings XI Punjab this season, is set to join national teammates John Hastings (Kolkata Knight Riders), Mitchell Marsh and Steve Smith (Rising Pune Supergiants) back home.
Marsh though -- unlike Hastings, brother Mitchell and Smith -- is not part of the 16-man Australia squad named for the West Indies tri-series starting June 3, which also involves South Africa.
Marsh picked up the injury during the game on April 19 against Kolkata Knight Riders and seemed to have carried the back niggle ever since, the Cricket Australia website said.
Meanwhile Bailey signed up for the Mahendra Singh Dhoni-led Pune to give some hope to the team's stuttering campaign, which was further hit by a string of injuries to its foreign recruits.
Englishman Kevin Pietersen and South Africa's Faf du Plessis were two early casualties before Mitchell and Smith also pulled out due to injury.
Bailey, who had captained the Punjab team in the previous edition, went unsold in the February auctions only to make a late entry into the cash-rich league.
"We lost four crucial players, but we are looking ahead," said Pune chief executive Raghu Iyer.
"Bailey has tremendous experience and had a very successful season before last. He can contribute to the leadership group.
"Smith's (injury news) been a bummer. He was just coming into his own and this happened.
"It is a challenging time. Before we could settle down we lost the core group of players around whom you build a team."
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