IPL 2021: MI vs RCB Quinton de Kock : Mumbai Indians (MI) are set to miss their star opener and wicket-keeper, Quinton de Kock, for the tournament opener on April 9. The 28-year-old is currently part of the South Africa squad for the three-match ODI series against Pakistan.
IPL 2021 - MI vs RCB: Mumbai Indians are set to miss their star opener and wicket-keeper, Quinton de Kock, for the tournament opener
de Kock is amongst the five players — Kagiso Rabada and Anrich Nortje (both Delhi Capitals) hard hitter David Miller (Rajasthan Royals), pacer Lungi Ngidi (Chennai Super Kings) — in the squad and is expected to join their respective franchises ahead of the season.
However, due to national duties, they will join the teams near the beginning of the IPL season. South Africa will play Pakistan in a three-ODI series starting April 2. The second ODI would be played on fourth while the last would be played on seventh.ALSO READ| Disney+ Hotstar VIP rolls out new IPL 2021 campaign with Ajay Devgn & Tamannaah Bhatia
Although Cricket South Africa (CSA) has decided to allow its IPL-bound players to leave for India after the second ODI on April 4, de Kock will have to undergo quarantine if MI fail to arrange a chartered flight.
Situation 1 – If players are not transferred bubble to bubble – they will have to go under quarantine for 7 days post-arrival. This means they will lose a minimum of two games before they are allowed to play in IPL 2021.
Situation 2 – If franchises arrange for a chartered plane, the players will not have to serve the quarantine and will be available for the opening games. But as things stand, there is no update on this so far.
Notably, Chennai Super Kings (CSK) CEO Kasi Vishwanathan said that Ngidi will undergo quarantine upon his joining and will hence be not available for selection. “Ngidi will have to follow the same guidelines as others and will be put in quarantine once he arrives. Therefore he will not be available for selection for the opening game,” he had told InsideSport.
Meanwhile, DC said they have no update on Rabada and Nortje’s arrival.
De Kock was one of the leading factors for Mumbai’s IPL 2020 winning campaign. In Rohit’s absence due to injury, the Proteas batsman took the responsibility to give the team a strong start. In 16 games he had scored 503 runs. While he will be missed if not available for selection, MI might have to ready backup in a worst-case scenario.
ALSO READ| IPL 2021 sponsors list growing as Star Sports signs Cred and othersOne option they have is to bring Chris Lynn into the scheme of things. Although he did not play a single match in 2020, the Australian batsman’s exploits are well-known. In 2018 and 2019 alone he has scored 896 runs in 29 games. Another option is that MI can promote Ishan Kishan as an opener and play Saurabh Tiwary in the middle.
It is the DC pacers who will be missed the most. Rabada and Nortje form DC’s lethal fast bowling unit. The duo played a crucial role to lead the Capitals to their maiden IPL final last year. Together, they were the second-highest wicket-taking pair with 52 wickets to their name.
Shikhar Dhawan, Prithvi Shaw, Ajinkya Rahane, Rishabh Pant, Shreyas Iyer, Axar Patel, Amit Mishra, Ishant Sharma, R Ashwin, Lalit Yadav, Harshal Patel, Avesh Khan, Pravin Dubey, Kagiso Rabada, Anrich Nortje, Marcus Stoinis, Shimron Hetmyer, Chris Woakes, Daniel Sams, Steve Smith, Umesh Yadav, Ripal Patel, Vishnu Vinod, Lukman Meriwala, M Siddharth, Tom Curran, Sam Billings
Rohit Sharma, Quinton de Kock (WK), Suryakumar Yadav, Ishan Kishan (WK), Chris Lynn, Anmolpreet Singh, Saurabh Tiwary, Aditya Tare, Kieron Pollard, Hardik Pandya, Krunal Pandya, Anukul Roy, Jasprit Bumrah, Trent Boult, Rahul Chahar, Jayant Yadav, Dhawal Kulkarni, Mohsin Khan, Adam Milne, Nathan Coulter-Nile, Piyush Chawla, James Neesham, Yudhvir Charak, Marco Jansen, Arjun Tendulkar
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