IPL 2023: Prasidh Krishna’s injury layoff will hurt Rajasthan Royals

IPL 2023: Prasidh Krishna’s injury layoff will hurt Rajasthan Royals. Players who can take Prasidh Krishna's place in IPL 2023 season.

Prasidh Krishna absence might hit Rajasthan Royals (Images: ©BCCI/IPL)

The runners-up from the last season of Indian Premier League (IPL), Rajasthan Royals were dealt a huge blow before the beginning of the 2023 season as their premier fast bowler, Prasidh Krishna has been sidelined from competitive cricket for a long period due to stress fracture and as per reports, will require more time to recover completely.

Prasidh Krishna last played for India during their tour to Zimbabwe in August 2022 and since then, he has been in rehabilitation mode at the National Cricket Academy (NCA) in Bengaluru.

“One can’t put a date on the prospective comeback of Krishna”: BCCI official

Meanwhile, an official from the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has also confirmed Prasidh’s state of injury and mentioned that the cricketer is yet to recover to make a return to the ground; and he has also stressed on how difficult it would be to predict the date of his comeback.

“Prasidh has a stress fracture and in case of this particular form of injury, you can’t put a prospective comeback (date). Every player has a different body type and recovery process and time would be different,” news agency PTI quoted a BCCI official as saying. “It could be anything between six months to one year. In case of Prasidh, he is still not fit enough to return to play and it’s unfortunate that he missed the entire domestic season.”

Undoubtedly, in a World Cup year, it is a huge setback for the Indian team but for the present time, the inaugural IPL champions, Rajasthan Royals will be missing his services as he has been a consistent performer in the last few years of IPL. His absence will put questions on their plans as they commence on a quest to clinch their second IPL title.

After spending a long time with the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) in the IPL, Krishna was purchased by the Royals for a whopping INR 10 crore, and the speedster didn’t disappoint as he was tenth highest wicket-taker of IPL 2022 with 19 wickets in 17 games at an average of 29 and economy of 8.28, bowling mostly during the powerplay and the death overs.

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Let’s take a look at how his absence could make Rajasthan Royals struggle in the 2023 season.

Krishna’s expertise of bowling during powerplay and death overs

Prasidh Krishna was just brilliant with the ball during IPL 2022 in both the powerplay and death overs; even if he used to go for a few runs, he has a knack of picking crucial wickets in these phases to slow down the run scoring.

After leg-spinner Yuzvendra Chahal, the purple cap winner of the last season with 27 wickets in 17 games, Krishna was their second highest wicket-taker and by far the best Indian bowler. Navdeep Saini who played just couple of games had three wickets in his name, while young Kuldeep Sen earned eight wickets in seven games at an economy of 9.41.

Krishna’s height along with his pace kept the batters guessing about the shots and even if they had plans in mind, the bounce sometimes didn’t allow them to work their shot according to their plan.

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Royals will miss Krishna on the bouncy track of Jaipur

With the IPL set to be back to the home-away format this year after a gap of three seasons, Rajasthan Royals will play five games at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium in Jaipur where the pitches generally help the pacers who generate swing and steep bounce off the wicket. The playing surface has often been covered with a tint of fresh grass, something which generally encourages tall bowlers like Krishna to bowl fast and short balls to the batters. And on that huge ground, it wouldn’t have been that easy to smash Krishna’s bouncers out of the park.

Let’s take a look at three pacers who could replace Prasidh Krishna for IPL 2023

Few recent pictures of the practice of Rajasthan Royals may suggest that they have already roped in Sandeep Sharma, but no official notice has been circulated till now. Mumbai Indians too are looking for Sandeep Sharma as the replacement for Jasprit Bumrah, as per few news sources.

But there have been few more players who could be signed by the Royals.

Vijaykumar Vyshak (Karnataka)

One of the most exciting talents for Karnataka cricket in recent times, Vijaykumar Vyshak was simply magnificent in the 2022-23 season of Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy (SMAT) as he blew away the batting orders that came against him.

In eight games of SMAT 2022, Vyshak recorded 15 wickets at an average of 12.20 and economy of 6.31, including the best bowling figures of 3/5. He has made the ball talk at the start of the innings and offered his side some early wickets to put the opponents on the backfoot.

Vyshak has all the potential to light up IPL 2023 and RR can look to snatch him for this season of the IPL.

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Vasuki Koushik (Karnataka)

Another exciting fast bowler from Karnataka, Vasuki Kaushik has been on song in this season. In the recently finished SMAT 2022-23, Koushik bagged seven wickets in eight games at an average of 22.57 with an economy of 6.49, while in the Vijay Hazare Trophy (VHT) 2022-23, he was the highest wicket-taker for Karnataka with 18 wickets in nine games at an average of 11.72 and economy of 2.70, including best figures of 4/27.

Given his excellent rise and being in a purple patch, Rajasthan Royals can look to add him for the IPL 2023 as a replacement of Prasidh Krishna.

Varun Aaron (Jharkhand)

Even though Varun Aaron has not been in the peak of his form in the recent past during the IPL, he has been really consistent in the Indian domestic circuit. In 78 List A games, he has picked up 124 wickets at an economy of 5.46 and average of 27.01.

In 52 IPL games, Aaron has registered 44 wickets at an average of 33.66 and economy of 8.94. His best season was during 2014 when he picked up 16 wickets in 10 games at an average of 18.68 and economy of 8.15.

With Aaron’s speed and his experience of playing in this high-pressure tournament, Rajasthan Royals might consider drafting this ace pacer for the forthcoming season.

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Rajasthan Royals Squad for IPL 2023

Yashasvi Jaiswal, Devdutt Padikkal, Riyan Parag, Joe Root, Sanju Samson (c & wk), Shimron Hetmyer, Kunal Singh Rathore, Jos Buttler (wk), Dhruv Jurel, Donavon Ferreira, Abdul Basith, Jason Holder, Ravichandran Ashwin, Murugan Ashwin, KM Asif, Trent Boult, KC Cariappa, Obed McCoy, Yuzvendra Chahal, Kuldeep Sen, Navdeep Saini, Kuldeep Sen, Kuldip Yadav, Akash Vasisht, Adam Zampa.

The Rajasthan Royals will start their IPL campaign on April 2 against Sunrisers Hyderabad at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium in Hyderabad.

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