South African batsman Rassie van der Dussen won’t be joining the Rajasthan Royals squad as a replacement for all-rounder Ben Stokes for this year’s edition of the IPL.
Reports did the rounds in the past few days that Proteas right-hand batsman Dussen has been signed by RR to fill the void left by Stokes, who injured his finger badly in his team’s opening game and was ruled out of the entire tournament thereafter.
But according to ESPNcricinfo, even though Dussen got the Indian visa, he couldn’t reach here after failing to not obtain a NOC from Cricket South Africa. It is understood that the CSA doesn’t want Dussen to worsen an injury of his and hence denied him the NOC.
Dussen has played 20 T20Is for South Africa with a decent record to his name, having scored 628 runs at an average of 41.86 and strike-rate of 138.63.
Gerald Coetzee trains with Rajasthan Royals squad
Meanwhile, Dussen’s fellow South African and right-arm fast-bowler, Gerald Coetzee, has reached India after being signed in as a replacement for England batsman Liam Livingstone. Coetzee, in fact, even trained with the rest of the Royals squad on Saturday (May 1) after finishing his quarantine.
It’s a relief for RR, who were left with only 4 overseas players before Coetzee filled in for Livingstone, who returned to England prematurely citing bio-bubble fatigue. Following suit was pacer Andrew Tye after feeling anxious over the worsening health situation in India amid the COVID-19 pandemic and its impact on international travel back to Australia.
Royals had already lost Stokes and also spearheaded Jofra Archer, their MVP of the last year’s edition of the IPL in UAE, where the world’s renowned quick took 20 wickets from 14 innings at an economy rate of 6.55.
Rajasthan Royals are currently fifth in the IPL 2021 points table with 3 wins and 4 losses from their 7 outings. They next play Chennai Super Kings on Wednesday in Ahmedabad.
