What’s the story?
A BCCI Press release has confirmed that India and Royal Challengers Bangalore skipper Virat Kohli will miss the initial stages of the 2017 Indian Premier League, starting from the 5th of April after failing to recover fully from the shoulder injury.
The 28-year-old will undergo rehabilitation on his injured shoulder and a further update on his participation in the League will come in the second week of April.
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The right-hander injured his shoulder during the third Test against Australia in Ranchi a few weeks back and was ruled out owing to the from the fourth and deciding Test of the rubber at Dharamshala last week.
During the post-match presentation ceremony of the Dharamshala Test, Kohli had said that he was still a few weeks away from getting fully fit and return back to the field.
The heart of the matter
Head coach Daniel Vettori on Thursday confirmed that in Kohli’s absence, AB de Villiers was likely to take over the reigns of captaincy. But on Friday, reports emerged that the South African was also not fully fit as of now and also missed the domestic one-day final because of a back injury.
Yet another key member of the squad-KL Rahul- has already been ruled out of the full season of the IPL, also due to a shoulder injury.
The last few days have seen not just players from the Royal Challengers but also other franchisees losing out on their star cricketers, with R Ashwin also ruled for the Rising Pune Supergiants and the likes of Murali Vijay, Umesh Yadav and Ravindra Jadeja also missing out on the action.
What’s next?
Obviously, every RCB supporter will be eagerly anticipating when their talismanic captain will play for them during the 10th edition of the League. Regardless of the duration that he would be out for, it is already a massive blow for the 2016 runners-up, who had a magical final stretch last year, which saw win four games at a stretch before winning the opening qualifier and progressing through to the final.
Author’s take
These are some tough times for the Royal Challengers Bangalore, who are facing a bit of a mini-crisis with Kohli out of the intial games, Rahul out for the season and de Villiers also not fully fit.
In such a scenario, they will look at the options at their disposal and revise their possible playing XI.
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