What’s the story?
Royal Challengers Bangalore, who are facing a lot of injury concerns even before the start of the 2017 IPL, have announced Kerala’s aggressive batsman Vishnu Vinod as a replacement for injured Indian opener KL Rahul.
This news comes after the first match of the tenth edition which RCB lost to the defending champions Sunrisers Hyderabad by 35 runs.
In case you didn’t know...
It was revealed that Indian opener Rahul, who sustained a shoulder injury during the first Test against Australia in Pune, would miss the tenth edition of the tournament and will travel to London to undergo a surgery in a bid to be 100% fit for the 2017 ICC Champions Trophy that begins in June.
Rahul played the remaining three matches of the four-match Test series against the visiting Aussies in spite of the injury.
We had earlier reported that TN’s N Jagadeesan was in line to replace Rahul as he was called up for a trial by the franchise along with three other candidates.
The details
Jagadeesan and Vinod, along with Karnataka batsman Pavan Deshpande and Prashant Chopra from Himachal Pradesh attended the trials under the watchful eyes of RCB coach Daniel Vettori on April 2 and faced RCB’s overseas imports, Shane Watson, Tymal Mills and Adam Milne.
Vinod is an aggressive top-order batsman who has done well for Kerala in the T20I format. The right-hander has scored 338 runs in 38 matches at an average of 33.80 and a sensational strike-rate of 143.22.
Unlike Jagadeesan, he is someone who looks to take the game away from the opposition in the first six overs, something that might have made the team management go for the Kerala opener ahead of Jagadeesan.
What’s next?
Vinod is expected to join the RCB squad ahead of their second game against Delhi Daredevils on April 8.
Author’s Take
This is a good move by RCB who needed a reliable wicketkeeper as they don’t have one in their squad. The addition of Vinod will make sure that the franchise not only get a good wicketkeeper but also a batsman who can score some handy runs when needed.
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