England all-rounder Will Jacks, bought by Royal Challengers Bangalore, has been ruled out of the 2023 edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL).
According to a cricket website, RCB is currently in talks with New Zealand all-rounder Michael Bracewell as a potential replacement for Jacks. Jacks was bought by RCB for Rs 3.2 crore in the IPL auction back in December and would have provided a cover for Glenn Maxwell in their middle order.
But a muscle injury in the second ODI during the tour of Bangladesh ruled him out of the series. After scans this week and consultations with a specialist, he has been forced to pull out of IPL.
The injury comes as a huge blow for the all-rounder, who was hoping to use the tournament to familiarise himself with Indian conditions and push his case for a spot in England’s 50-over World Cup squad, which will take place in India this year from October-November this year.
Bracewell has not played in IPL as well and went unsold during the auction, having entered with a base price of Rs 1 crore.
RCB will kickstart their season against Mumbai Indians (MI) from April 2 onwards. It will be their first fixture at their home arena, M Chinnaswamy Stadium, since May 2019.
Pacer Reece Topley, Jacks’ teammate in Surrey and England, was also signed by RCB and is expected to be fit in time for start of the league. He had spent a white-ball tour to Bangladesh on the bench due to a minor niggle.
Jacks made his England debut in all formats this winter, getting his T20I and Test caps during the tour to Pakistan last year before making his ODI debut in Bangladesh.
He has played two Tests so far, having scored 89 runs and taken six wickets for England. He has scored 27 runs in two ODIs and taken a wicket and has scored 40 runs in two T20Is.
He is a destructive batter in the shorter format. He has played 109 matches and has scored 2,802 runs in 102 innings at an average of 29.80, with one century and 23 fifties. He has a strike rate of 157.94 in the format.
In the SA20 League this year, which is South Africa’s domestic T20 franchise league, he scored 270 runs in seven matches at an average of 38.57 and a strike rate of 201.49, with three half-centuries and the best score of 92. He finished as the sixth-highest run-scorer in the tournament and also took three wickets. He was an instrumental figure in Pretoria Capitals’ semi-final finish.
