IPL 2023: KL Rahul walks off field with injury during LSG vs RCB

Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) on Monday suffered a massive setback when their captain KL Rahul walked off the pitch after suffering an injury.

Rahul, who may have picked up a hamstring injury, went down on the field in pain during the first innings of his side’s meeting with Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) in Lucknow in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2023.

After RCB opted to bat on Monday, Rahul injured himself on the final ball of the second over. As he tried to stop a boundary off RCB skipper Faf du Plessis, the Indian fielder appeared to have tweaked his right thigh muscle while chasing the ball. Rahul immediately went down on the field in pain as he held his right leg. To a length of a delivery from Marcus Stoinis, du Plessis drove wide of cover, and while Rahul gave it a good chase but pulled up just before the boundary cushions.

As the LSG skipper looked in immense pain, the team’s physios attended to him. While LSG brought a stretcher, Rahul chose to instead walk off the pitch with help from the physios.

In Rahul’s absence, Krunal Pandya is leading LSG in their ongoing game against RCB since he was the designated vice-captain.

Earlier in the day, Rahul, at the toss said that his team discussed not to have a fixed mindset.

"Having played here (Lucknow) twice, we know that spin will be used more than pace here. Just want to hold our composure during crunch moments. The only thing we spoke about is to not come with a fixed mindset and we have to bowl well and restrict them to a low total," Rahul added.

Meanwhile, RCB captain du Plessis said at the toss that he had a “well-suited” squad for their game in Lucknow.

“There will be little more turn in the second innings I feel. I feel much better now. We got Hazlewood in tonight, and Anuj comes in for Shahbaz. Our squad is well-suited for these conditions. It is just about batting well tonight,” the RCB skipper said.

With 10 points from eight games, LSG are currently placed second in the IPL 2023 table, in comparison to RCB’s sixth place in the table. If Rahul and Co win on Monday, they’ll replace Gujarat Titans (GT) at the top of the table, but having played a game more. Both teams have won three games in their last five fixtures in the ongoing IPL 2023.

LSG vs RCB: Playing XI

Royal Challengers Bangalore XI: Virat Kohli, Faf du Plessis (c), Anuj Rawat, Glenn Maxwell, Mahipal Lomror, Dinesh Karthik (wk), Suyash Prabhudessai, Wanindu Hasaranga, Karn Sharma, Mohammed Siraj, Josh Hazlewood

Lucknow Super Giants XI: KL Rahul (c), Kyle Mayers, Deepak Hooda, Marcus Stoinis, Krunal Pandya, Nicholas Pooran (wk), Krishnappa Gowtham, Ravi Bishnoi, Naveen-ul-Haq, Amit Mishra, Yash Thakur