New Delhi, April 25 (IANS) Tearaway pacer Umran Malik, who was ruled out of the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) campaign in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025, has joined the franchise for a rehab and return to cricket programme, which will continue for the remainder of the season.

Ahead of IPL 2025, KKR had brought in left-arm pacer Chetan Sakariya as a replacement for Malik, who was understood to be recovering from a hip injury and went through an extensive rehab at the BCCI Centre of Excellence (CoE) in Bengaluru.

But ahead of KKR’s match against Punjab Kings (PBKS) at the Eden Gardens on Saturday, Malik was seen during the nets session of the defending champions, prompting calls on whether he has linked up with the team officially for IPL 2025.

“Umran Malik has joined the squad in Kolkata to continue his rehab and return to the cricket programme with KKR for the remainder of the season. He’s not joining as an official playing member of the squad, but will work with the team and support staff to get back to his best,” said the franchise in a statement on Friday.

Malik's last competitive game was in IPL 2024, as he was kept on the sidelines by injuries and illness since then. He was named to play in the Duleep Trophy at the start of the 2024/25 domestic season but had to pull out due to dengue, before being laid low by a hip injury.

Malik, who came into the limelight in IPL 2021 when he clocked 150kph for Sunrisers Hyderabad on debut, has played eight T20Is for India and picked 11 wickets at an economy rate of 10.48. He also played 10 ODIs for India, taking 13 wickets at an economy rate of 6.54.

KKR, the defending champions led by Ajinkya Rahane, are placed seventh in the points table with just three wins from eight matches and need victories in their remaining league games to have a shot at qualifying for the IPL 2025 playoffs.