Rajasthan Royals rope in Maharaj
New 28: Rajasthan Royals on Thursday added senior South African left-arm spinner Keshav Maharaj to their squad in place of pacer Prasidh Krishna for the ongoing Indian Premier League.
Kolkata Knight Riders also named Afghan player Allah Ghazanfar — a 16year-old off-spinner — as a replacement for the injured Mujeeb Ur Rahman, the IPL said on Thursday.
Ghazanfar has represented Afghanistan in two ODIS. The youngster has played three T20s and six List ‘A’ matches and has five and four wickets respectively against his name. He joins KKR for his base price of `20 lakh.
Prasidh recently underwent a surgery on his left proximal quadriceps tendon and is currently recovering. His replacement Maharaj has played 27 T20s, 44 ODIS and 50 Tests and has scalped 237 wickets in international cricket.
Additionally, he has played 159 T20s, picking up 130 wickets, and can chip in with some handy runs down the order. RR have brought him on board for his base price of `50 lakh.
COACH BACKS MAX TO COME OUT OF LEAN RUN
Bengaluru: Glenn Maxwell has played just six balls across two matches to make three runs in this IPL, but Royal Challengers Bengaluru batting coach
Neil Mckenzie hoped the Australian all-rounder to hit his straps sooner than later.
“You know, that’s cricket. It’s up and down. It’s only two games. We know with Maxie, he’s going to win us a couple of games. He has made a slower start to the tournament, but we know that he’s going to win games for us later on in the tournament,” Mckenzie said in the pre-match press conference.
PERPLEXED BY BUMRAH GETTING JUST ONE OVER
Left perplexed by Mumbai Indians skipper Hardik Pandya’s tactics in the record-breaking IPL loss to Sunrisers Hyderabad, former Australia captain Steve Smith has said he cannot fathom why premier pacer Jasprit Bumrah bowled just six deliveries up until the 13th over of the match.
“I was perplexed with some of their bowling changes in the first innings for Mumbai. Bumrah bowled in the fourth over, he went for 5 and then we didn’t see him again till the 13th over when they were on 173,” Smith told host broadcaster Star Sports.
“All the damage had been done, you needed your best bowler to be coming back and take some wickets in that period and I think they missed a trick there bringing him back only in the 13th over,” he pointed out. —