Last Update on: March 29th, 2023 at 05:21 pm
Liam Livingstone, the powerful batsman for England, won’t play in Punjab Kings’ IPL opener because the ECB hasn’t given him the go-ahead to play after he recovered from a knee injury he sustained in December. On April 1, Punjab Kings host KKR in the home opener of their IPL season.
Due to his all-around skills, Livingstone is an important part of the Punjab Kings team, but he hasn’t played any competitive cricket since suffering a knee injury on his Test debut in Pakistan in December. The 29-year-old had already hurt his ankle when competing in the Hundred at home the previous year.
Liam Livingstone Out Of The First IPL 2023 Games vs KKR
“He is out of the first game at least as the ECB is conducting scans to determine his fitness status. He should be available from the second game onwards,” an IPL source told PTI.
Livingstone shared a video of himself hitting the nets on social media on Wednesday.
He had his greatest season in the IPL last year, scoring 437 runs in 14 games with an incredible strike rate of 182.08 and an average of 36.42. He has played for England in 12 ODIs and 29 T20s and is renowned for his powerful hitting ability all over the world.
In 2022, when Punjab finished sixth for the fourth consecutive season, he also claimed six wickets with his combination of off-spin and leg-break.
The highest-paid player in IPL history and fellow Englishman Sam Curran has already joined the Punjab team.
The team will also be without the services of top pacer Kagiso Rabada, who will miss the KKR encounter owing to national duty, in addition to Livingstone. On Tuesday in Johannesburg, he participated in the T20 championship game between South Africa and the West Indies.
Two days before the away match against the Rajasthan Royals, on April 3, Rabada is anticipated to arrive in India.
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