Harshit Rana, Matheesha Pathirana and Josh Hazelwood (Image Agency) Injuries or unavailability of top pacers just before the start of the IPL can cause sleepless nights for franchise coaches and support staff. While Lucknow Super Giants have been one of the worst hit teams for several years now, this time around three teams will sweat their pace – Kolkata Knight Riders, Sunrisers Hyderabad and Royal Challengers Bengaluru. For KKR, their top two pacers – Harshit Rana and Matheesha Pathirana – are struggling with injuries. They also lost Mustafizur Rahman to non-cricket reasons but drafted in Zimbabwean Blessing Muzarabani in his place. SRH are also in a tricky area regarding the fitness of their skipper Pat Cummins, with RCB not sure if they will get their spearhead Josh Hazlewood from the start of the tournament.
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Rajasthan Royals captain Riyan Parag watches West Ham vs Man City in LondonTOI takes a look at how the situation could turn out for these teams.Double danger for KKRKKR’s star Indian paceman Harshit Rana is likely to miss most of the IPL due to knee surgery. While under the threat of even missing the entire IPL season, the management is not naming a replacement right away in the hope that the 24-year-old will be fit by the end of the business. KKR have some Indian pacers in Vaibhav Arora and Akash Deep and they will need to step up along with Muzarabani and Cameron Green. This brings us to their other injury concern, Matheesha Pathiran. The three-time champions paid Rs 18 crore for the former CSK slinger, who is known to be injury prone. He missed most of the T20 World Cup with a calf injury, but reports suggest he will be fit in time for the IPL. But given his erratic fitness, it will be a miracle if Pathirana is fit for the most part. Also of concern to the 2024 champions will be the fact that his reworked action after injury has made him less effective as a pitcher.Captain change for SRH?SRH’s pace attack revolves around Pat Cummins, moreover he is the captain of the team. But the Aussie Test captain is still recovering from a back injury that worsened when he played the Ashes Test despite not being fully fit. It is not clear when he will be fit and available and the buzz is that SRH may hand over the captaincy to Ishan Kishan who has had a pretty great World Cup T20 with the bat. There is absolutely no one in SRH’s attack who comes close to Cummins’ quality in T20s. The likes of Shivam Mavi, Jaydev Unadkat and Ehsan Malinga can be almost serviceable but it could be a huge challenge for SRH, despite their excellent batting line-up, if Cummins remains unavailable for long.Josh is not enough for RCBJosh Hazlewood is still recovering from hamstring and Achilles injuries and has been out of cricket for some time. The Australian took 22 wickets at an average of 17.54 in RCB’s maiden title triumph last year and it is his ability to deliver crucial blows that has made a serious difference. Cruise control is running with time to be fit and Kiwi pacer Jacob Duffy is likely to play in his absence.Duffy, while a capable bowler, is not exactly a threat on Indian pitches and the RCB management will be hoping Hazlewood returns in time to lead the attack with Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Yash Dayal as quality support.
