Mumbai Indians might have suffered yet another injury blow ahead of IPL 2023 as their Australian recruit Jhye Richardson has suffered an injury before the tournament.
The right-arm pacer has been ruled out of the upcoming three-match ODI series against India this month and his participation in IPL looks unlikely too. Jhye Richardson has been sidelined after he suffered a hamstring injury recurrence in his first grade game back since the initial injury occurred during the BBL.
The Australia fast-bowler has not played a competitive game since suffering the hamstring injury in the first week of January. At first, it looked like the injury was a minor one and it was expected that the pacer would recover in time for the BBL finals. However, the assumptions were wrong as it took Jhye Richardson two months to recover from the injury.
And while he was sidelined with the injury, Australia decided to name him in the 16-man squad for the upcoming ODI series against India that starts on March 17 in Mumbai. The pacer has now been ruled out and has been replaced by Nathan Ellis.
He made his much-awaited return to action on Saturday by plying his trade for his club side Fremantle against Wanneroo in a 50-over fixture. The comeback, however, did not pan out as expected as he managed just 4 overs where he picked up 3 wickets for just 5 runs. After those 4 overs, he left the field for a scan.
Blow for Mumbai Indians:
Jhye Richardson’s injury is yet another blow for Mumbai Indians. The 5-time champions will also miss the services of their star pace spearhead Jasprit Bumrah. The India star will miss IPL 2023 with a back injury.
Mumbai Indians would be desperately hoping that Richardson recovers in time for IPL 2023. The 16th edition of the tournament is scheduled to begin on March 31.
Mumbai Indians squad:
Rohit Sharma (c), Tim David, Ramandeep Singh, Tilak Varma, Suryakumar Yadav, Ishan Kishan, Tristan Stubbs, Dewald Brevis, Jofra Archer, Jasprit Bumrah, Arjun Tendulkar, Arshad Khan, Kumar Kartikeya, Hrithik Shokeen, Jason Behrendorff, Akash Madhwal, Cameron Green, Jhye Richardson, Piyush Chawla, Duan Jansen, Vishnu Vinod, Shams Mulani, Nehal Wadhera, Raghav Goyal.