Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) will open their Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025 campaign against Delhi Capitals in Visakhapatnam on Monday (March 24).
Ahead of the clash, LSG have suffered a big blow as fast bowler Mayank Yadav sustained a fresh injury setback which derailed his return to IPL.
Lucknow's pre-season has been rocked by injuries to four of its premier Indian pacers -- Mayank, Mohsin Khan, Avesh Khan, and Akash Deep. In fact, Mohsin has been ruled out of the tournament with LSG naming all-rounder Shardul Thakur as a replacement.
Mayank, who was undergoing rehab at the National Cricket Academy in Bengaluru to recover from a back injury, was expected to return to the league in the first half of April.
However, LSG head coach Justin Langer provided a grim update on Sunday (March 23), revealing that the young pace sensation has picked up a fresh injury. He will now only be available in the final week of the IPL 2025 season.
"Unfortunately, I think Mohsin sustained a small calf injury in his rehab. So, knowing that we had four guys out, we had to make that tough call on Mohsin. We think Avesh Khan will pass his right to play tomorrow morning through the NCA. So, if that's the case, then he'll be back sooner rather than later. Akash Deep is up and running, and bowling at about 90% now. I believe he's done his yo-yo test. So, he's really ticking off all the boxes," Langer told reporters.
"Mayank, who everyone was very excited about last year, he was going quite well (coming back from a back injury), and he kicked his toe on the bed. He got an infection in his toe. It's put his rehab back about a week or two weeks. But he's up and running. We regularly see videos of him bowling. I saw a video of his yesterday. So, hopefully by the back end of the tournament, Mayank will be up and ready to go for us," he added.
LSG will be led by Rishabh Pant in IPL 2025. The franchise shelled out a record amount of Rs 27 crore to sign the wicketkeeper-batter at the mega-auction last November.
The LSG squad also includes big names like Nicholas Pooran, Mitchell Marsh, Aiden Markram among others.
