Injured Kagiso Rabada to miss IPL

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Bengaluru, April 5: South Africa pacer Kagiso Rabada will miss this year's IPL owing to a lower back stress fracture and it has come a huge blow for Delhi Daredevils. Raba will miss the action up to three months.

South Africa team manager Dr Mohammed Moosajee said: "Kagiso Rabada has been diagnosed with a lower back stress reaction which will rule him out of cricket action for up to three months. He will need a month's break from all physical activity before commencing with a rehabilitation programme to get him ready for the series against Sri Lanka in July.

"Rabada will be unavailable for the Delhi Daredevils for the upcoming IPL."

The IPL is scheduled to begin this Saturday (April 7) with a game between Chennai Super Kings and Mumbai Indians at the Wankhede Stadium, the latter's home venue.

Rabada was adjudged the man of the series in the recently concluded Test series against Australia. He had taken 23 wickets from four Tests at a stunning 19.26. However, there was no real rest for him as he played all the 10 Tests during South Africa's home summer along with eight out of nine ODIs.

In fact, he had complained of a stiff back and lower back pain during the final morning of the fourth Test against Australia at Johannesburg and had bowled just three overs.

To make the matters more clear, Rabada had bowled 2326 deliveries in all formats during this South African season well ahead of second placed Morne Morkel who send down 1597 deliveries.

Rabad had also admitted to the need of managing his workload better to stay fit and to avoid missing matches in future. "It's something I have to think about and plan moving forward...how to have some time off. It is very important because you ultimately want to play for 10 to 15 years and you have got to have some sort of plan. You cannot just drift through it," he said.

Rabada had landed himself in trouble on occasions because of his on-field behaviour and nearly missed out the second half of the series against Australia after he made contact with then Australian captain Steve Smith during the Port Elizabeth Test. However, the verdict to ban him for the rest of that series was later overturned.