South African pacer Morne Morkel ruled out of Champions League Twenty20

According to ESPNCricinfo, South Africa fast bowler Morne Morkel will not be available for the upcoming Champions League T20 because of a shoulder injury. Morkel has hurt his rotator cuff and wicketkeeper batsman Manvinder Bisla will be his replacement in the 15-man squad for the Kolkata Knight Riders.

Morkel is the third overseas player to become unavailable for KKR after Australian batsman Chris Lynn was ruled out by shoulder surgery and Bangladesh allrounder Shakib Al Hasan had his NOCs to play for the franchise cancelled by the BCB because of disciplinary issues.

KKR are left with five overseas players: Jacques Kallis, Sunil Narine, Ryan ten Doeschate, Andre Russell and Pat Cummins.

Venky Mysore, the KKR chief executive, said Cricket South Africa had communicated to the BCCI that Morkel needed time to recover from a shoulder injury that had worsened during the recent tri-series in Zimbabwe. KKR were only told of the problem earlier this week.

"He [Morkel] has had an ongoing problem. CSA informed BCCI that the injury was aggravated and was causing challenges with his ability throw," Mysore said. "So he needed to be in the rehab for some time."

Morkel was bought by KKR for Rs 28,000,000 at the 2014 player auction. He took 12 wickets in 12 matches at an average of 30.58 and economy of 7.64.