Former India player turned veteran commentator Aakash Chopra has said that the RCB will be hit hard in the rest of IPL 2025, especially in the playoffs, due to some of their players’ unavailability as well. He added that they might have to include the underperforming Liam Livingstone in the playing XI as well.

In a video shared on his YouTube channel ‘Aakash Chopra,’ he said, “RCB already do not have Josh Hazlewood. They will not have Jacob Bethell, Romario Shepherd and Lungi Ngidi. They will miss four players when they reach the playoffs, which means these players won’t be there for the most crucial matches. Jacob Bethell not being there is okay because Phil Salt is available.”

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“He (Salt) too is part of the T20 team, but the T20 series is starting on June 6. So he is available till the final if RCB reach there. However, Josh Hazlewood not being there, and if Lungi Ngidi, who was considered to be his backup, and Romario Shepherd are also not there, suddenly, you will have to play Liam Livingstone in the XI and go with Nuwan Thushara, unless, of course, you sign somebody else,” he again added.

Shifting his attention to the Punjab Kings (PBKS), Aakash Chopra added that Marco Jansen’s potential absence would be a massive blow for them.

“Punjab don’t know about Josh Inglis. He will probably not come. After that, Marco Jansen will go, and Marco Jansen will be a massive dent in my opinion. They have Azmatullah Omarzai and Xavier Bartlett, again an Australian, so I don’t know what he would do. Xavier Bartlett and Azmatullah Omarzai are okay, but Marco Jansen was important. If both Josh Inglis and Marcus Stoinis don’t come, there will be huge problems. So they too will have problems,” Aakash Chopra concluded.