(Reuters) – England’s Rajasthan Royals and England’s Ben Stokes will miss the rest of the Indian Premier League (IPL) season after breaking his finger in their opening match, his franchise said yesterday.
Stokes suffered the injury in a field during the narrow loss of four runs to Punjab Kings, where he bowled just one over and was dismissed for a duck after opening the innings in the running hunt.
The Royals said the 29-year-old player will never return to England again.
“Subsequent investigations revealed that he sustained a broken finger, which will unfortunately rule him out for the remainder of the Indian Premier League 2021 season,” Royals said in a statement.
“We are delighted that Ben would like to stay with the group to provide his valuable support and inputs off the field. In the meantime, we will be reviewing possible replacement options for the remainder of the season. ”
Stokes’ injury is a big blow to the Royals who are also without fellow Englishman Jofra Archer, Most Valuable Player last season with 20 wickets in 14 games.
The Barbados-born fast bowler has been cleared to resume light training following surgery for a freak hand injury but the English cricket board (ECB) did not give a timeline for a return to competitive action.
Stokes signed for 1.4 million pounds ($ 1.92 million) at the IPL auction in 2018 while Archer was bought for 800,000 pounds the same year.