The Royal Challengers Bangalore are facing major headaches around their playing XI amidst spree of injuries and unavailability of key players.
Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) made an impressive feast of compiling their squad for the 16th edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL). Undergoing the all-important retention and release process and fine-tuning their squad at the bidding room in December, the RCB think-tank managed to put on board a robust first-choice playing XI.
Expectations were that their performance in the auction could well be a prelude to RCB’s brilliance on the field in IPL 2023. But a spree of injuries and unavailability of players now threaten to derail their progress. The 2016 runners-up are set to miss at least three of their first-choice picks.
These absentees would otherwise play handsome role in influencing RCB’s fortunes on the park. In their absence, skipper Faf du Plessis & company have major headaches up their sleeves to finalise a perfect playing XI. Below is a list of RCB players unavailable for selection ahead of the team’s opening game on April 2 versus Mumbai Indians (MI).
RCB’s spin aggressor played a huge part in his team’s ascent to the playoffs last summer. His impressive tally of 333 runs in just eight innings featured a spectacular century in the eliminator game against Lucknow Super Giants (LSG).
It was an innings that came on the back of an encouraging run at the domestic level. The player on the brink of India selection would’ve had a great chance to bolster his stocks with another fruitful campaign for RCB. But he is now set to skip at least the first half of IPL 2023 due to an injury on his heel.
The leader of RCB’s pace pack, their most experienced fast bowler is going to be another major miss for the first half of the tournament. Hazlewood has been a T20 bowler on the rise but his persistent strife with Achilles tendonitis has sidelined him for at least the first half of the IPL 2023.
Hazlewood, who picked up 20 wickets in his 12 outings last season at an impressive 8.10 runs an over, has been dealing with this injury for quite some time. The Aussie right-arm quick was ruled out of the recent tour of India with it and has missed a number of Test matches over the past two years.
The Sri Lankan allrounder walks into that RCB playing XI at No.7-8 with his incisive mystery spin and ability to provide batting resolve. But he stands unavailable for selection at the start of the IPL 2023 due to international commitments in New Zealand.
Hasaranga hasn’t been provided the NOC by Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) to skip the T20I series against the Kiwis, which will mean a delayed turnaround for IPL duties for him. The cricketer held an influential presence for RCB last year, taking a whopping 26 wickets in just 16 matches.
