Royal Challengers Bangalore are having the worst possible start to the IPL season. First it was Starc who pulled out of the entire event and then their captain, Kohli, who was injured during the 3rd test against Australia revealed that he won’t be participating in the initial few games. And now another Indian batsman, KL Rahul. who was also suffering from a shoulder issue has revealed that he won’t be taking part in the cash rich event.
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Rahul’s absence will deeply hurt RCB as over the last year Rahul has emerged as one of the mainstays of the Indian batting lineup. His exuberance and stroke play at the top of the order(or even when batting at number 4) is something that’ll be very hard to replace. Rahul was suffering from a shoulder issue all through the Border Gavaskar trophy but chose to play with the pain, telling reporters that though the pain hindered his batting, it was maybe a blessing in disguise as he had to restrict himself from playing some strokes, which in turn helped him be a little more disciplined with his batting.
KL Rahul said: “(My shoulder) It gets quite sore. I can’t quite dive on the field. There are a few shots that I will have to restrict. I will play within myself. Even I do, it’s not that I can’t score, I have all the shots in the book. That is what I spoke to the management and the captain. I will have to focus more with the problem in my shoulder. I am still enjoying batting with that problem.”
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According to reports, Rahul will be travelling to London to undergo a shoulder injury in a bid to be fit in time for the Champions’ Trophy, which starts in June.
Rahul had been in scintillating form all through the test series and would be rueing the fact that he will not be able to build on it during the IPL. Having not played limited overs cricket for a while, it would be tough for Rahul to directly step into the blue shirt for the Champions’ trophy. We’ll have to wait and see if the selectors take that into account when picking the CT squad.
RCB will miss Rahul as he provided the team with that extra balance with his wicketkeeping skills, and they would now have to either look for a keeper/batsman replacement, or will have to find a new wicketkeeper for their side.
The Indian team management would be having a closer look at Rahul’s progress(with respect to his injury), as the Champions’ Trophy is just around the corner. Hopefully, he picks on from where he left.
