Kolkata Knight Riders have signed Aaron Finch as a replacement for England batter Alex Hales for the Indian Premier League 2022, as announced by the league in a release.

Hales has cited bubble fatigue as his reason for withdrawal from the tournament. Finch – Australia’s ICC T20 World Cup-winning captain, has thus far played 88 T20Is and has scored 2686 runs with the help of 2 hundreds and 15 half-centuries.

Managing Director of Kolkata Knight Riders Venky Mysore said, “We respect Alex Hales’ decision of choosing family and mental well-being over his participation in the upcoming season of the IPL. We will miss having him in the Galaxy of Knights this season, but we wish him all the best.”

Finch, who has played 87 IPL games and has over 2000 IPL runs, will join KKR at the price of INR 1.5 Crore.

Mysore added: “We are delighted to welcome Aaron Finch, the T20 World Cup-winning captain, to the Knight Riders family. He is excited about joining the rest of the KKR squad in Mumbai and we look forward to benefiting from his vast experience.”

KKR – the two-time IPL Champions – will kickstart the IPL 2022 proceedings on March 26 when they take on Chennai Super Kings at the Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai.

More to follow...