Ajinkya Rahane has sustained a hamstring injury and is set to miss Kolkata Knight Riders’ final game of the league phase this IPL, on Wednesday versus Lucknow Super Giants in Navi Mumbai.

It has been learnt that Rahane has a Grade III tear on his hamstring, which means he could be sidelined for more than six weeks. That implies Rahane will not be considered when the selectors get down to finalise the squad for the one-off Test versus England in Birmingham from July 1-5.

Rahane did look a tad uncomfortable with his left hamstring during the Knight Riders’ last game versus Sunrisers Hyderabad in Pune on Saturday, which they won comfortably by 54 runs. According to KKR sources, the senior India batsman will most likely reach the National Cricket Academy (NCA) in Bangalore on Tuesday morning.

“Usually, it takes a player at least six weeks to recover completely if he’s down with a Grade III hamstring injury. However, the necessary scanning and all will determine if the recovery could take longer and whether the cricketer concerned has to undergo a surgery or not,” an NCA coach said.

Rahane, though, was dropped from Team India’s previous Test series, which was at home versus Sri Lanka, after his prolonged lean patch had continued till the disappointing tour of South Africa, where India lost 2-1 in the Tests this January.

In the home Tests against Sri Lanka, India didn’t miss him nor Cheteshwar Pujara either as the likes of Hanuma Vihari and Shreyas Iyer had contributed with the bat.

In the ongoing IPL too, Rahane’s performance has been far from outstanding, aggregating 133 runs from 7 games.