Washington Sundar’s fitness struggles continues as the Sunrisers Hyderabad allrounder is set to be sidelined at least for a week with a hand injury, head coach Ben Moody confirmed on April 11. The 22-year-old suffered a split webbing on his right hand during the last game against Gujarat Titans and could only bowl three overs.
Sundar has been SRH’s lead spinner in the ongoing IPL edition as they have chosen the approach of playing four seamers.
The youngster was taken for 47 runs in their opening fixture against Rajasthan Royals. He came back strongly to return 2/28 and 2/21 in the next two games. Washington’s three overs in the last game went only 14 runs – as the Titans’ skipper Hardik Pandya rued missing out on extra 7-10 runs.
“Washington has torn the webbing in his right hand, between his thumb and first finger. We must monitor that over the next two-three days. Hopefully, it isn’t a significant blow. I’d imagine it’d take probably a week or so to settle down.”
Moody said.
Sundar has been in constant battle with health issues. He missed the second half of the previous season after fracturing his finger. Earlier this year, he had to sit out of three T20Is against the West Indies after suffering a hamstring injury.
To cope with his unavailability for the games against Kolkata Knight Riders (Apr 15) and Punjab Kings (Apr 17), Sunrisers have two options – leg-spinner Shreyas Gopal and left-arm spin all-rounder J Suchith. They also have Abdul Samad who bowls part-time leg-spin but that could leave their bowling attack with a big hole in it.
In another but positive news for the Sunrisers fans, Moody has confirmed that Rahul Tripathi’s fitness is not an issue. Tripathi was retired hurt during the game against GT.
“He’s fine, he’s just getting cramped. It’s humid conditions and we get him to run to hotspots. That is something we may need to look at to make sure we get the maximum out of him with the bat because obviously, he is a very valuable player for us,”
the Australian stated.
