Why is Kedar Jadhav Not Playing Today’s IPL 2023 Match Between LSG and RCB in Lucknow?

Veteran Indian cricketer Kedar Jadhav has become a surprise inclusion in Royal Challengers Bangalore‘s Indian Premier League 2023 squad. Jadhav, 38, received an official call-up a few hours before their ongoing ninth match of the season against Lucknow Super Giants at the Bharat Ratna Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee Ekana Cricket Stadium.

Even more surprisingly, Jadhav has replaced England all-rounder David Willey at RCB. The prospect of a right-handed batter and an occasional off-spinner replacing an overseas left-arm pacer and a left-handed batter is a contradiction of the highest order as far as like-for-like replacements are concerned.

Jadhav, who has played for six different IPL teams in the past, will be participating in his 12th IPL season.

Why is Kedar Jadhav Not Playing Today vs Lucknow Super Giants?

Jadhav, however, didn’t get to play a match straight away as he is neither part of the Playing XI nor among five substitutes in IPL 2023 Match 43 tonight. That being said, Jadhav has joined Royal Challengers’ camp as he was seen partaking in pre-match training activities.

While the team made a total of four changes to the Playing XI, Jadhav wasn’t among one of them perhaps because of the team management wanting him to acclimatize to the culture and gel within the squad before playing an IPL match after 19 months.

It is noteworthy that Jadhav had remained unsold during both IPL 2022 and IPL 2023 auctions. As a matter of fact, he was part of streaming platform Jio Cinema’s list of commentators for this season of the IPL.

Having not played international cricket in the last three years, Jadhav is coming on the back of scoring 555 runs at an average of 92.50 across six Ranji Trophy 2022-23 innings for Maharashtra (highest run-scorer for them).

Kedar Jadhav RCB Stats

Interestingly, Bangalore have been one of six Jadhav’s IPL franchises in the past. For the unversed, the right-hand batter had played under former captain Virat Kohli between 2016-2017.

In 16 innings across a couple of seasons for the franchise, Jadhav’s 309 runs had come at an average and strike rate of 25.75 and 141.74 respectively including a half-century as a makeshift wicket-keeper batter.