KL Rahul ruled out of IPL 2017 with shoulder injury
Royal Challengers Bangalore opener KL Rahul has been ruled out of the Indian Premier League 2017 with a shoulder injury. Rahul had sustained the injury in the first Test in Pune but he continued to play through the Border-Gavaskar series.
India reclaimed the Border-Gavaskar Trophy after their 8-wicket win in Dharmsala this week. Rahul scored a brilliant unbeaten 51 in the fourth innings to help India reach the target of 106 on the fourth day.
Rahul will travel to London to get a surgery done on his left shoulder. The Karnataka batsman had spoken about how his injury restricted his shot-making during the series against Australia but he still managed to score 393 runs in four matches at an average of over 65 with six half-centuries. He was the third highest run-getter in the series behind Steven Smith (499) and Cheteshwar Pujara (405).
After the match Rahul had said, “After Pune, I knew I couldn’t play my shots, it was a big restriction. I love to play my shots, dominate the spinners, but I had to play a different game. Pretty disappointed I couldn’t convert some of my starts into big scores, but right now nothing else matters.
“Here I took a few knocks on the body. All I was telling myself, take a few hits for the team. I don’t know what else was running in my mind. The way Jinks came out and started hitting Cummins for sixes. He just came out and said I am going to dominate.”
RCB are likely to miss the services of captain Virat Kohli as well for a few games due to a shoulder injury. Kohli also hurt his right shoulder in the second Test in Bengaluru while diving to save a boundary. He eventually missed the series-deciding Test in Dharamsala and is expected to be out for a couple of weeks, AB de Villiers will lead RCB in his absence.
