The Rajasthan Royals (RR) all-rounder, Ben Stokes will be missing the entire remaining games of the  Indian Premier League (IPL) with what is suspected to be a broken hand. He sustained the injury during RR’s opening game against the Punjab Kings on Monday when taking a catch to dismiss Chris Gayle.

He immediately felt discomfort in his left index finger, as he was seen in some pain as he got up to celebrate with his teammates. Stokes continued on in the match, though did not add to the one over he bowled before the incident. Opening the batting, he was eventually dismissed on a three-ball duck as the Royals fell five runs short of their target of 222.

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 The 29-year-old had an X-ray on Tuesday and will have another in the next couple of days to determine the scale of the damage before the ECB take over the planning of the recovery.

The ECB confirmed their medical team, including their UK hand specialist consultant based in the UK, is already overlooking the process. Depending on the severity of the injury, the toll on England may be manageable. The ECB had ceded ground to the IPL by allowing players involved in the competition’s knock-out stages to miss the Test series against New Zealand at the start of the summer.

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Meanwhile, there was better news for Jofra Archer, who has been cleared to resume training after undergoing surgery to remove a fragment of glass from his hand. The fiery pacer suffered the injury while cleaning a fish tank at his home in January. He missed the initial part of the IPL as a result though the Royals hope he could play some part in the latter stages of the tournament.