Royal Challengers Bengaluru pacer Josh Hazlewood is ruled out of the season opener against Sunrisers Hyderabad at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru. The 35-year-old joined the RCB camp on March 26 but is currently not fit to play a part in the IPL. The team management is currently monitoring his progress and in all likelihood, the pacer is expected to return to the playing XI soon.
In the pre-match press conference, head coach Andy Flower confirmed that Hazlewood looks extremely fit but not enough to start for RCB against SRH.
“Hazlewood did arrive yesterday, he's looking fit. I did comment to him that he looks even younger than I remember. So, he's enjoyed some good downtime but he's worked hard to get himself back up to full fitness, we've been liaising closely with Cricket Australia on his fitness. So, it's great to have him in our dressing room and in the meetings. But he won't be ready for tomorrow, he's just got off the plane, but we'll be monitoring his fitness very closely and looking forward to him making his entrance into the IPL,” Flower said.
RCB opt to bowl first
Royal Challengers Bengaluru have won the toss and elected to bowl first. Captain Rajat Patidar explained that the goal is to put another star on the crest, having won the title last year. Before the match, legendary cricketer Virat Kohli was spotted giving a pep talk to the players, which will certainly motivate the team.
In the meantime, Patidar announced that Jacob Duffy and youngster Abhinandan Singh will feature in the playing XI. Hyderabad, on the other hand, have named only three foreigners in the XI, as Liam Livingstone and David Payne are part of the Impact Player list.
Sunrisers Hyderabad (Playing XI): Abhishek Sharma, Travis Head, Ishan Kishan (wk/c), Heinrich Klaasen, Aniket Verma, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Salil Arora, Harsh Dubey, Harshal Patel, Jaydev Unadkat, Eshan Malinga
Royal Challengers Bengaluru (Playing XI): Virat Kohli, Philip Salt, Rajat Patidar (c), Jitesh Sharma (wk), Tim David, Romario Shepherd, Krunal Pandya, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Abhinandan Singh, Jacob Duffy, Suyash Sharma
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