On Thursday Rajasthan Royals suffered an injury blow, premier Indian pace bowler Sandeep Sharma was ruled out of the remainder of the tournament with a fractured finger.
Rajasthan Royals said in a statement that the Indian speedster continued bowling despite the injury to his finger. They also said that they will actively look for a replacement for Sandeep Sharma.
“Sandeep Sharma has been ruled out for the rest of the season after suffering a fracture in his finger,” Rajasthan Royals said in the statement.
“He showed immense bravery to continue bowling with this injury in the last match and everyone at the franchise wishes him a full and speedy recovery. The team management is actively working on finalizing his replacement, post which an official announcement will be made,” the franchise added.
During the toss against Mumbai Indians on Thursday, Riyan Parag confirmed that Sandeep has broken his finger and will not play in the game against Mumbai. He said, “Couple of changes, Hasaranga has a niggle, Kumar Kartikeya comes in, Sandy (Sandeep Sharma) bhai has broken his finger so Madhwal comes in.”
In the 10 matches Sandeep played for Rajasthan Royals this season, he took 9 wickets including a best of 2/21. Sanju Samson is already down with an injury and hasn’t played since he injured himself in a game against Delhi last month. Sanju has scored 224 runs in 7 innings at a strike rate of 143.59.
The injury concerns also hit the Punjab Kings as Glenn Maxwell is also ruled out for the rest of the IPL due to an injury.
The social media handles of Punjab Kings confirmed the news. “Glenn Maxwell has been ruled out of the remainder of the season due to a finger injury.” Punjab captain Shreyas Iyer also confirmed this news at the toss earlier in the match against Chennai Super Kings.