With the Indian Premier League (IPL 2025) set to restart after a one-week hiatus, there have been a lot of speculations surrounding the availability of overseas players. For Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB), they had a major headache regarding Australian pacer Josh Hazlewood’s return for the remainder of the league.
Hazlewood had also incurred a shoulder niggle which made his participation even more doubtful, especially with Australia set to play South Africa in the World Test Championship (WTC Final 2025) next from June 11. However, Australian media reports earlier today (May 16) confirmed that the RCB star will return to India. The 34-year-old has been clinical for RCB this season and is currently third in the Purple Cap race with 18 wickets from 10 matches.
RCB is set to play the first match when IPL 2025 restarts, against the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) on May 17 at the Chinnaswamy.
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Despite his return being confirmed, Josh Hazlewood won’t be available for the RCB vs KKR game. This is because he is currently in Brisbane, where he is completing his rehab, and it will take a week before he can fly to India. His injury is not serious, and he is expected to be fit in time for both the IPL playoffs and the WTC final. Given the timeline, it is expected that Josh will join RCB before the playoffs begin on May 29.
Speaking about RCB’s playoffs chances, they are currently placed second in the IPL 2025 points table with eight wins from 11 games and 16 points.
They have three more games remaining and will need to win at least one to secure a playoffs berth. Apart from the KKR match, the Bengaluru outfit plays Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) on May 23 and Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) on May 27.
The Rajat Patidar-led side are also strong contenders for a top-two finish, which would allow them two attempts at securing a place in the summit clash.
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