Sunrisers Hyderabad pacer T. Natarajan has been ruled out of the ongoing IPL due to a knee injury that he originally picked up during the tour of Australia earlier this year.

The 30-year-old Natarajan had played only two out of the four games for Sunrisers Hyderabad this season. It is understood that he had never fully recovered from the knee injury because of heavy workload he endured on the tour of Australia.

Natarajan never fully recovered from his knee injury,” a BCCI source told PTI on conditions of anonymity on Thursday but did not specify the duration for which he would be unavailable.

“He went for rehabilitation at the NCA (National Cricket Academy) but it is now evident that even when he was declared fit to make a return against England, he was not 100 percent match ready.

“Now he could be out for a longer period as he had rushed his comeback without doing proper rehab,” the source added referring to the one T20 and one ODI he played during the England series.

Natarajan became an overnight sensation with his yorkers at death during the last IPL and subsequently played all three formats for India in Australia.

Once he was back in India, the BCCI never made it public that he had sustained a knee injury.