Indian Premier League (IPL) season 8 is almost here, but there is yet another disappointing news for fans just ahead of the tournament.
After Mitchell Starc's injury update, it's Rajasthan Royals's Kane Richardson whose absence has come as a dampener. He did not mention why he is pulling out of the tournament, except revealing on Twitter that it is "personal".
Richardson was due to join fellow Australians Steve Smith, Shane Watson, Ben Cutting and James Faulkner for the practice sessions but that will not happen anymore for this season at least, reported Espncricinfo.com.
Richardson said on Twitter: "Sadly will be missing this years IPL due to personal reasons. Thanks to the @rajasthanroyals for their support. Good luck! #AlwaysARoyal."
He was retained by the franchise but they are yet to name his replacement. It seems that it will not make much of a difference to the Royals as they already have a good bank of pacers in the form of Tim Southee, Rusty Theron, Watson, Chris Morris, Stuart Binny and Dhawal Kulkarni. So Watson has to choose his bowling options carefully before facing the mighty Kings XI Punjab on Friday, 10 April.
Richardson has so far played 10 matches in the IPL and picked up 11 wickets at an economy rate of 7.9. The only thing Royals would miss about him is his pace and the ability to nip the ball back into the batsman.
