IPL turns to Injured Premier League as several key players were ruled out due to injuries
Before the IPL kick starts its tenth edition, indian Premier League (IPL)has been plagued by injury woes to key players. With less than four days to go for the tournament to begin, some of the biggest names of world cricket have already pulled out.
Royal Challengers Bangalore are seemingly the worst-hit by the injury blows. They lost the service of their skipper Virat Kohli due to a shoulder injury and will be out for a couple of weeks. After that it was confirmed that their other star batsman KL Rahul, too will miss the season as undergoes a surgery.
To add more dilemma to the RCB management, their key batsman Ab de Villers who was assigned to lead their side in the absence of Kohli is also hit by an injury. De Villiers, who was supposed to feature in the final for his domestic side Titans in the Momentum Cup, was ruled out due to a back injury.
The extent of back injury is not yet known and there is no decision taken regarding de villers’ participation in the IPL. Australia’s pace spearhead Mitchell Starc has also pulled out of this year’s IPL after being advised to focus on rehabilitation ahead of ICC champions trophy in June
After Virat Kohli and KL Rahul, the latest to join the bandwagon of injured Indian cricketers are R Ashwin and Murali Vijay. Ashwin is reportedly set to miss IPL 2017 because of a sports hernia and Murali Vijay is also reportedly going to take time off to heal his shoulder injury
JP Duminy’s decision to pull back from the IPL citing to ‘personal reasons’ made a huge setback for Delhi Daredevils. Besides Duminy, Delhi Daredevils will also be missing Quinton de Kock. de Kock suffered a tendon damage on his right index finger, after which he too withdrew from the IPL.
Other players who are set to miss the IPL include Rising Pune Supergiant’s Mitchell Marsh who was ruled out of the IPL after he underwent a surgery. These misses will affect the balance and composition of the team.