Mayank Yadav, the fast bowler for Lucknow Super Giants (LSG), has hit another snag in his recovery journey, pushing back his return to cricket a bit more. It’s been a tough road for him since he burst onto the scene in the last IPL season, where he took the league by storm, snagging the player-of-the-match title in his first two outings and bowling at some mind-blowing speeds over 150 kph.
Justin Langer, the head coach of LSG, keeps his fingers crossed that the 22-year-old will be back for the later part of the tournament. He shared some updates on Mayank’s situation, stating, Everyone was really excited about him last year. He was doing great as he recovered from his back injury, and then he accidentally stubbed his toe on the bed! That little mishap led to an infection, which has set his rehab back by a week or two. But he’s getting back in shape; we’ve been seeing videos of him bowling. Just yesterday, I checked out a clip of him. So, I’m hopeful that by the time we reach the end of the tournament, Mayank will be ready to join us on the field.
LSG is kicking off their IPL 2025 journey today with a match against Delhi Capitals in Vizag. Unfortunately, they’ll be taking the field without four key Indian bowlers, namely Mayank, Akash Deep, Avesh Khan, and Mohsin Khan, who are all nursing various injuries. Mohsin has been ruled out for the entire season and will be replaced by allrounder Shardul Thakur.
Langer acknowledged the challenge posed by missing bowlers, saying, We know that four of our bowlers won’t be available for this first match and a couple of them might miss a few others down the road. But hey, that’s part of the game. Fast bowling can be tricky and often leads to injuries, but we just have to roll with it. We’ve all been around long enough to know that injuries are something we need to be ready for. You can’t wish them away, but you certainly can plan for them. We might have to tweak our strategy a bit, but as the tournament continues, we’ll welcome our talented bowlers back into the squad.
