India, March 22 -- Kolkata Knight Riders suffered yet another blow to their pace resources with India seamer Akash Deep ruled out for at least eight weeks due to a stress reaction in his lower back on Saturday, which effectively sidelined him from the Indian Premier League.

The injury has also put the right-arm pacer in serious doubt for the one-off Test against Afghanistan in early June. "Akash Deep has had a stress reaction on his lower back. There has been a recurrence and it might take 8-12 weeks to heal. He is not going to play the IPL and is very unlikely to be selected against Afghanistan," a BCCI source in the know told PTI.

The 29-year-old Bengal pacer, who was last seen in action during the Ranji Trophy semifinal against Jammu...