Australia’s white-ball skipper Aaron Finch will replace England batter Alex Hales in the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) line-up for the 2022 edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL).

Hales, who was bought by KKR at his base price of INR 1.50 Crore, has decided to opt out of the cash-rich tournament, citing bubble fatigue.

“Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) have signed Aaron Finch as a replacement for England batter Alex Hales for the TATA Indian Premier League (IPL) 2022. Hales has cited bubble fatigue as his reason for withdrawal from the tournament,” IPL said in an official release.

“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.”

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

Taking to Twitter, Alex Hales also posted a lengthy note, explaining his ‘difficult’ decision to pull out of the IPL 2022.

Knight Riders will begin their IPL 2022 campaign in the tournament opener against Chennai Super Kings (CSK) at the Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai on March 26.