Glenn Maxwell and Josh Hazlewood with the RCB team
IPL 2023: The 16th edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) is going to start from 31 March. The teams of Chennai Super Kings and defending champions Gujarat Titans are face to face in the first match of the league. But long before the start of this league, many teams are struggling with the problem of injury. Some teams are also forced to play without their star players because of this. One of them is the Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) team with the presence of veteran Virat Kohli. Another bad news for this team has come to the fore just before the start of the tournament. This team has not yet emerged from Glenn Maxwell’s injury that another Australian player can now be out.
Let us tell you that according to a report by Cricbuzz, the team’s leading bowler Josh Hazlewood may be out of the first half of the season. Even if they make a comeback in front, nothing can be said. Recently, Hazlewood was ruled out of the entire Border Gavaskar Trophy and then the ODI series against India as well. He is currently in Sydney and is going through the phase of recovery from his injury. It was told in the report that even when he is fit, he will still have to take clearance from the medical staff of Cricket Australia (CA). He last played a Test match against South Africa in January. He has been out of the team since then.
The Australian team has to play the final of the World Test Championship after the IPL and then the Ashes. In view of this, Hazlewood’s fitness will be important for Cricket Australia and not the IPL. So nothing can be said when this 32-year-old Australian bowler will return to the du Plessis-led team. He was roped in by the franchise in the 2022 mega auction for a whopping Rs 7.75 crore. In this season, RCB will start their campaign against Mumbai Indians on 2 April.
Josh Hazlewood
Glenn Maxwell also gave tension
At the same time, Glenn Maxwell, another prominent Australian cricketer of RCB, has also increased the tension of the team. Maxwell was injured in November after T20 World Cup 2022. He also had leg surgery. After that he was selected in the ODI series for the tour of India. He was ruled out of the last two ODIs after playing the first match. After that he himself said in a statement that it will take time for him to get fully fit. In such a situation, Maxwell is also in danger of being out of the first few matches. How the team management will deal with these two big problems will be a matter to be seen.
rcb squad
Faf du Plessis (c), Virat Kohli, Glenn Maxwell, Mohammed Siraj, Harshal Patel, Wanindu Hasaranga, Dinesh Karthik (wk), Shahbaz Ahmed, Rajat Patidar, Anuj Rawat, Akash Deep, Josh Hazlewood, Mahipal Lomror, Finn Allen, Suyash Prabhudesai, Karn Sharma, Siddharth Kaul, David Willey, Reece Topley, Himanshu Sharma, Manoj Bhandge, Rajan Kumar, Avinash Singh, Sonu Yadav, Michael Bracewell.