Things seem to be going from bad to worse for Shreyas Iyer, as after being ruled out of the fourth Test match of the India-Australia series of the Border Gavaskar Series at Ahmedabad’s Narendra Modi Stadium, he is set to miss the ODI series too. This might not be the end of the misery for the young batter, as he is likely to miss a significant portion of the 2023 season of the Indian Premier League (IPL).
According to a report by The Times of India, Shreyas will miss the first half of the 2023 IPL and is set to be ruled out of action till the end of April. The back injury seems to be a recurrence of the one that forced him to miss the ODI series against New Zealand and the first test of this series too
The same report adds that Shreyas is currently recovering at the National Cricket Academy (NCA) in Bengaluru. The 28-year-old had flown out of Ahmedabad even before the Test match ended, having complained of swelling in his lower back following Australia’s marathon first innings effort that saw India spend almost two days in the field.
This news is going to force KKR to find a new captain. Shreyas was purchased by KKR for Rs. 12 crore in the 2022 mega auction and named their skipper. The two-time champions failed to qualify for the playoffs last season, and their hopes of a change in fortunes have been made even tougher with Iyer’s injury.
Indian captain Rohit Sharma had hinted at the fact that Shreyas’ injury is set to keep him out of action for a long period of time post the end of the Ahmedabad Test.
“Poor guy. It just was such an unfortunate incident. He had to wait all day (second day) to bat and then when the day got over, the issue he had with his back recurred. He was sent to the hospital to take scans. I don’t know the exact report of the scans, but he does not seem to be doing that well,” said Rohit in the post-match press conference.
India will hope Shreyas recovers in time for the 2023 World Test Championship (WTC) final, which will start on June 7.
