IPL 9 ; Usman Khawaja to play for RPS(pune)

© Cricket Australia

RPS have signed Khawaja as replacement for Kevin Pietersen (calf) and Faf du Plessis (finger).

ising Pune Supergiants have added a sixth Australian to their squad following today's announcement that Usman Khawaja will join them for the remainder of the Indian Premier League season.

Tournament-ending injuries to Kevin Pietersen (calf) and Faf du Plessis (finger) has seen the new franchise turn to the Australian, who will play in the IPL for the first time.

An unsuspecting Khawaja was "chilling" at home when he got the call from Pune last week to take Pietersen's place after the Englishman went down with a season-ending torn calf muscle last Friday.

Pune's woes were compounded by news of the injury to Du Plessis and while Khawaja hasn't played a competitive game of cricket since Australia's final match at the World T20 a month ago, he's confident he can hit the ground running when he arrives on the subcontinent.

"I'm not the kind of guy that needs to hit a lot of balls to feel good," Khawaja told cricket.com.au.

"I hit a few balls today, I'll hit a few balls again and I'll be ready to go.

His imperious form for the Sydney Thunder in the Big Bash League victory last season and being the leading run-scorer for Australia, for the recently-concluded World T20, has made us sit up and notice," Fleming said. "His style of play is perfect for the T20 format."

Given his top form leading into the IPL 2016 auction, he was expected to be one of the big buys there, but went unsold. Khawaja has not played a competitive match since Australia's World T20 game against India last month but said he was confident of performing immediately for the franchise.

"I'm not the kind of guy that needs to hit a lot of balls to feel good," Khawaja told cricket.com.au. "I hit a few balls today, I'll hit a few balls again and I'll be ready to go.

"Even during the season I don't hit a lot of balls. At training I'm usually out (of the nets) pretty quick. I do all my bulk training out of season. I didn't feel too much different. That's a good thing - I was still whacking them, I still felt good. I'm pretty confident (of performing immediately). At the end of the day you've just got to watch the ball."

Supergiants have struggled early in their debut IPL season, winning two games of their first six matches.