New Delhi, Apr 14: New Zealand opener Martin Guptill has got a chance to feature in his first Indian Premier League as Mumbai Indians' opener Lendl Simmons is injured.

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Mumbai Indians' coach Ricky Ponting informed on Wednesday that the franchise has roped in New Zealand swashbuckler as a replacement to Simmons.

Lendl Simmons suffered an injury to his lower back, which is similar to the injury that forced him to pull out of the West Indies squad for the 2016 ICC World T20, reported ESPNCricinfo.

This might be his first outing in the cash-rich Indian league, but the Kiwi opener has featured in the Caribbean Premier League where he captained the Guyana Amazon Warriors in it's 2016 edition.

The journey begins. Excited to be heading to India to be with @mipaltan ! Great job on the win tonight! #3Flights pic.twitter.com/4UbZg4P9Kp

— Martin Guptill (@Martyguptill) April 13, 2016

Guptill was the highest run-getter in the 2015 World Cup with 547 runs. Despite being listed as one of the marquee players with a base price of Rs 50 lakh, Guptil was ignored by franchises in the IPL auction that happened in February.

Guptill will have big boots to fill as Simmons was Mumbai Indians' best batsman in their run-in to the IPL title, last year. Simmons amassed 540 runs in 13 matches with a strike rate of 122.41.

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