Australia's plan to win T20 World Cup 2024 takes a nosedive as pacer breaks his leg ahead of IPL 2024

Australia’s left-arm pacer Jason Behrendorff has broken his leg during a net session when he was batting at the Western Australian Cricket Association ground here in Perth. Immediately after he injured himself, Behrendorff was ruled out of the entirety of Indian Premier League 2024 where he was supposed to represent Mumbai Indians in what would have been his 3rd season with the franchise.

Jason Behrendorff was traded to Mumbai Indians from the Royal Challengers Bangalore before the start of IPL 2023. RCB had bought him during the 2022 mega auction for his base price of INR 75 Lakhs but he hadn’t played a single game.

Before his move to RCB, Behrendorff was bought by MI in the 2018 auction but was eventually ruled out due to a back injury before featuring for them in their title-winning 2019 season. He was released ahead of the 2021 auction and was bought by the Chennai Super Kings where he won his second IPL title by playing just 5 games.

Jason Behrendorff damages his left leg’s fibula in Australia

During his batting session at Perth in Australia, Jason Behrendorff was hit by a beaming delivery that struck his left leg and damaged his fibula. While batting, he missed one of the balls which eventually hit him just above his left ankle. His injury doesn’t require any such surgery or operation and it will get better through physiotherapy as well as extensive rest.

However, the main problem is that his injury will take at least 8 months to get well, and that rules out all the possibility of him featuring in the IPL as well as all the ICC T20 World Cup 2024. Jason Behrendorff could have become a key member of the Australian team due to his performances off-late, especially last year when he had also become the Kangaroos’ T20I player of the year.

It will also be a big blow for the Hardik Pandya-led Mumbai Indians as Behrendorff had a 14-wicket IPL 2023 season by featuring 12 times for the 5-time champions. But MI have gone on to name England pacer Luke Wood as the Australian’s replacement who has 19 IPL career wickets from 17 matches.

Luke Wood recently featured for the Babar Azam-led Peshawar Zalmi side in season 9 of the Pakistan Super League where he finished as the team’s highest wicket-taker. Wood claimed 12 wickets from 11 games at an average of 29.08 with a decent economy rate of 8.24.

But it will be his debut season in IPL and he will find it tough to become a like-to-like replacement for the well-experienced Jason Behrendorff. Wood will be joining the Mumbai Indians a few days ahead of their opening match against Gujarat Titans on March 24th at the Narendra Modi stadium. MI will then head over to Hyderabad to take on SRH 3 days later before hosting the Rajasthan Royals and Delhi Capitals in Wankhede

Mumbai Indians full squad for IPL 2024