Rajasthan Royals are all set to play their first match of IPL 2020 against CSK on 22nd September 2020. However, their star all-rounder, Ben Stokes has yet not joined the camp, who had to go to New Zealand to see his ailing father. Recently, RR head coach, Andrew McDonald spoke on his availability and said stated that
“First and foremost, thoughts with the Stokes family. It’s a difficult scenario, so we’re giving him as much time as he needs, and connecting with him as best we can. So yeah, we’re not sure where Stokesy’s at right now, but once it has played out, then we can make our decisions from there. But I don’t want to second-guess what will happen with him just yet,” McDonald told ESPNCricinfo during an interview.
RR’s other batsman Steven Smith too suffered from the injury in the last T20 international against Australia. His injury could further pose concern for the franchise. Though, the coach isn’t too perturbed with that.
“Steve Smith is a bit more clear-cut, I think. He needs a little bit of time, it was a short turnaround between game one and two where the concussion happened, so I’d imagine there were some lingering side effects. They’ll be erring on the side of caution, so hopefully [they will] see him out there again on Wednesday [for the third ODI against England in Manchester].
“You’re going to have other moving parts throughout the tournament. There will be injuries, fatigue, all sorts of things. So while there’s speculation around where Smudger’s at, and Stokesy, we feel we’ve got some good coverage to be able to play different ways.”
Indian Premier League is all set start from 19th September 2020. The first match of the league will be played between Chennai Super Kings and Mumbai Indians in Abu Dhabi.
