KL Rahul, the prolific Indian opener who bewitched the Cricketing fraternity by scoring brilliantly against Australia in the recently concluded series, has been ruled out of the entire IPL following the shoulder injury he picked up in Pune during the first innings. KL Rahul was batting on a well-composed 64 along with Ajinkya Rahane when he tried to loft Steven O’Keefe over mid-on, but only managed an outside edge to mid-off where Warner gleefully gobbled a catch, a dismissal that soon triggered a collapse. He fell on the ground, holding his shoulder, writhing in pain. He later dragged himself off the field even as India collapsed from being 94/3 to 105 all down.
In spite of the injury, Rahul continued to be a part of the series and went onto score a fifty in every innings he played second Test onwards, thus architecting India’s come-from-behind 2-1 series victory that helped them regain the Border-Gavaskar Trophy. Right after the second Test in Bengaluru, Rahul spoke about how the injury restricted his stroke-play. In the end, Rahul managed to score six fifties out of seven innings, scoring a total of 393 runs in the series, next only to Steven Smith’s 499.
Yesterday, when the news about Rahul’s absence from the IPL was out, it is the second big setback for the Royal Challengers Bangalore, after Virat Kohli is said to be unavailable for ‘at least the first few days’ of the IPL. This doesn’t bode well for the Club ahead of the tournament, since even AB Devilliers is touted to arrive late for the tournament. Owned by businessman Vijay Mallya, RCB have never won the coveted silverware.