Mumbai Indians have been jolted with a heavy blow right at the start of the tournament as Pat Cummins has been ruled out of the tournament with a back injury.
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Cummins has had a lot of workload in the past few months, having played 13 consecutive Tests for Australia and coming off a gruelling series in South Africa.
The Australian pacer had experienced some back spasms in the last week of the South Africa tour and Australia’s physiotherapist, David Beakley believes that he could be ruled out of the England ODI and T20 series in June.
“Pat experienced some back soreness during the fourth Test in South Africa,” David Beakley said in a statement.
“Follow-up scans have confirmed that he has bone oedema in his vertebrae. It is important that Pat has time off bowling, to prevent the injury becoming more serious and consequently we have made the decision to rule Pat out of the IPL.
“Pat will now undergo a period of recovery and rehabilitation and we will look to re-scan him in a few weeks to assess the healing.
“Following this we will be in a better position to decide on Pat’s return to play timeline including participation in the limited overs tour of the UK.” he added.Cummins was a massive part of Mumbai Indians’ plans for IPL 2018 and they would now be looking at a worthy enough replacement.
Cummins would have been the first choice for MI to fill in the spot for that overseas bowler after his impressive bowling performances in the Ashes and in South Africa. However, they will now have to give Mustafizur a long run as their first choice overseas seamer, before maybe opting for a reasonable replacement.
