Due to a shoulder ailment, Punjab Kings captain Shikhar Dhawan is expected to miss at least a few more IPL 2024 games.
Due to shoulder discomfort, Dhawan missed Punjab’s home game against the top-seeded Rajasthan Royals on Saturday, April 13. Sanjay Bangar, Head of Cricket Development at Kings, stated that the captain would probably be absent for the next “seven to ten days.”
“Unfortunately, Shikhar’s shoulder issue prevented us from having him tonight. Bangar stated, “We’ll have to wait and see how he responds to the treatment, but at the moment it seems that he could be out of action for at least seven to 10 days. So, he’s likely to be out for a couple of days [games], I would say.”
Punjab is scheduled to play two more home games throughout that period. They play their final two home games at the recently opened Mullanpur stadium in New Chandigarh this Thursday, April 18, against the Mumbai Indians, and on Sunday, April 21, against Royal Challengers Bangalore. Dhawan is now anticipated to be back in time for the team’s upcoming away game, which is scheduled for April 26 in Kolkata.
All-rounder Sam Curran of England led PBKS in the low-scoring thriller against RR in Dhawan’s absence, and the hosts fell by three wickets off the penultimate ball.
Curran is the PBKS vice captain, not Jitesh.
When Curran went toss against RR last month, confusion ensued since Jitesh Sharma had replaced an injured Dhawan at the pre-season captains’ conference in Chennai on the day of the IPL 2024 event.
On the eve of the RR match, Jitesh, who had shown up for an optional practise session, took a knock to the forehead while batting in the spinners’ nets without a helmet. According to Bangar, Jitesh was not selected for leadership by Punjab despite needing 15 stitches in his eyebrow. Despite this setback, the wicketkeeper-batter was still able to play on Saturday. It should be noted that Jitesh was never formally appointed as the team’s vice captain.
Bangar clarified, saying that Curran was the only player the management had targeted since the previous edition to fill in should the situation call for him to step in. “Jitesh isn’t the designated vice captain and I think maybe the impression could have been so because he attended the captain’s seminar at the start of the IPL,” Bangar said.
Similar circumstances occurred in the IPL 2023, when Curran led PBKS to a 2-1 win-loss record in three games until Dhawan was momentarily sidelined due to an on-field injury. According to Bangar, the squad wanted continuity, and he would have been on that trip to Chennai too if Curran hadn’t arrived in India so late.
“Since Curran had captained the team the year before, it was always the plan to have him fill in. We couldn’t send him to Chennai for the [briefing] since he arrived from the UK late and wanted to attend a few sessions. As a result, Jitesh was sent because the IPL [committee] had mandated that a player go. We had made up our minds that Sam Curran would take over and serve as the team’s captain if there ever had to be an opening.”
Curran did not score any runs with the bat, but he did produce a twin-wicket 19th over in PBKS’ 147th over when RR needed 20 off 12 balls. Curran’s final stats during the game were 4-0-25-2.
With four victories in six games, the Kings are now in eighth in the ten-team standings.
