Royal Challengers Bangalore are already dealing with poor performances from its players and the side has received another blow as Nathan Coulter-Nile, who was expected to be the prime pacer for the side, will not be joining the team for next seven days.
He will only be available for selection from April 13, when Virat Kohli and co take on Kings XI Punjab in Mohali.
It is not known whether the pacer has returned to Australia or not.
He was in UAE recently for the five-match ODI series against Pakistan, that concluded on March 31.
Jason Behrendorff and Marcus Stoinis landed in India and also played matches for their sides but Coulter-Nile didn’t.
At first, it looked like he was given rest but now it has come to notice that he hasn’t joined the team.
It is a big blow for the side as they retained the Australian pacer despite him missing IPL 2018 due to an injury
RCB did rope in Corey Anderson as his replacement but released him ahead of the auction for IPL 2019 and retained Coulter-Nile.
RCB will not be able to get his services for long as he will also return to Australia before May 1.
Cricket Australia had already confirmed that its World Cup-bound players will have to return to the country by May 1.
This means that Coulter-Nile will only available for RCB for just over two weeks.
Along with him, Stoinis will also leave RCB camp early.
In his absence, Kohli is expected to retain the same pace attack for today’s game against Kolkata Knight Riders. Though the place of Umesh Yadav in playing XI is in doubt.
However, there will surely be changes in the playing XI.
Likes of Shimon Hetmyer and Moeen Ali could be dropped from the playing XI
Either of Washington Sundar and Pawan Negi is expected to make it to the playing XI and play his first game of the season.
With four defeats in as many matches, RCB is placed at the last position in the points table.
They kicked off their campaign against Chennai Super Kings, where they were bowled out on 70.
In the next match, they hosted Mumbai Indians and failed to chase down a target of 188.
RCB next faced Sunrisers Hyderabad in an away game and leaked 231 runs to lose the game by 118 runs.