Lagatar24 Desk
New Delhi, March 26: Rajat Patidar, a batter with Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB), is most likely going to miss the first half of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2023 because of a heel injury. The batsman is presently receiving treatment at the National Cricket Academy (NCA) in Bangalore, according to ESPNCricinfo.
He has been told to rest for three weeks, and then an MRI will determine if he can play in the league’s second half. He will require an NCA clearance before hooking up with RCB because the injury occurred before he entered the training camp.
His absence could lead RCB to reconsider their hitting lineup. At the IPL auction in December of last year, RCB Director of Cricket Mike Hesson had stated that Virat Kohli will continue opening alongside skipper Faf Du Plessis even with Patidar in the mix. Because of the injury, Kohli might now play at number three, with Du Plessis expected to open the batting with either the unproven Indian wicketkeeper-batter Anuj Rawat or the young New Zealander prodigy Finn Allen.
Patidar didn’t sell in the IPL 2022 super auction but entered the lineup to take the place of injured wicketkeeper Luvnith Sisodia. In the tournament’s history, he scored 112* off 54 balls against the Lucknow Super Giants in the eliminator, leading to his team’s victory. With just 49 balls, he completed his century.
He had a strike rate of 152.75 and scored 333 runs in seven innings while averaging 55.50. He also had two hundreds and a hundred. He was selected for India’s ODI team in the summer of 2017 as a result of his league accomplishments as well as his outstanding performance during the title-winning Ranji Trophy season in 2021–22, during which he made 658 runs in six matches with two tonnes and five fifties.
The availability of Patidar is not the only issue with RCB. Josh Hazlewood, a pacer, is battling Achilles inflammation and his participation in the competition is in question. After skipping the first two Tests of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, he took a flight back to Australia. His health will be keenly watched when Australia takes on India in the ICC World Test Championship final on June 7 and faces England in the Ashes series beginning on June 16.
In Bengaluru’s M Chinnaswamy Stadium, RCB will open the 2023 Indian Premier League (IPL) season with a game against the Mumbai Indians (MI).
