Bengaluru: By all appearances, to a great extent, IPL-10 will be shorn of star value. In football, the dilemma of club over country is every manager’s nightmare. In cricket, IPL is still some years away from whipping up such loyalty.
The final edition before the players come up for auction in 2018 - where banned teams like Chennai Super Kings and Rajasthan Royals are set to be back in the mix from next year - the tenth edition seems to have lost some of its zing even before the game has begun.
With five days to go before champions Sunrisers Hyderabad take on Royal Challengers Bangalore in a repeat of last season’s final, the workload on the Indian cricketers seems to have taken a toll.
The Royal Challengers have been hit the hardest. With skipper Virat Kohli doubtful for the first few games following a shoulder injury, he sustained during the third Test in Ranchi, the Vijay Mallya-owned team were dealt a body blow with standout batsman KL Rahul, who’s come of age since IPL-9, being ruled out owing to a shoulder surgery.
Having already lost Aussie Mitchell Starc, who went back halfway through the Test series owing to a stress fracture in the right foot, the Challengers are pinning their hopes on their costliest buy - England’s T20 specialist Tymal Mills.
Rising Pune Supergiant will miss the key services of premier bowler R. Ashwin, who has been diagnosed with sports hernia. As in Rahul’s case, who needs six to eight weeks, Ashwin needs a similar time frame to regain fitness before the Champions Trophy in England in June.
