Back injury pushes 'Daredevil' Rabada out of IPL

The Daredevils start their campaign against Kings XI Punjab on April 8 at Indore.

Daredevils squad: Shreyas Iyer (Retained) Rishabh Pant (Retained) Chris Morris (Retained) Naman Ojha – Rs 1.4 crore Glenn Maxwell – Rs 9 crore, Gautam Gambhir – Rs 2.8 crore Jason Roy – Rs 1.5 crore Colin Munro – Rs 1.9 crore Mohammed Shami – Rs 3 crore (Retained via RTM) Amit Mishra – Rs 4 crore Prithvi Shaw – Rs 1.2 crore Rahul Tewatia – Rs 3 crore Vijay Shankar – Rs 3.2 crore Harshal Patel – Rs 20 lakh Avesh Khan, Shahbaz Nadeem, Daniel Christian, Jayant Yadav, Trent Boult, Manjot Kalra, Abhishek Sharma, Sandeep Lamichhane, Sayan Ghosh

The injury comes as a major setback to the Daredevils, who relied heavily on Rabada even in last season.

The 23-year-old fast bowler was retained by Daredevils using the Right to Match Card for INR .2 crores.

The Gautam Gamnbhir-led side will now be allowed to choose a replacement from the available players' pool.

In Rabada’s absence, the onus will be on New Zealand fast bowler Trent Boult to lead the Daredevils new-ball attack.

The eleventh edition of IPL has been rocked by injuries even before the first ball of the tournament. Before Rabada, Australia’s Mitchell Starc (KKR) and Jason Behrendorff (MI), New Zealand’s Mitchell Santner (CSK) have already been ruled out of the tournament.

Rabada is currently the No. 1 ranked Test bowler and he also emerged as the Player of the Series in South Africa's 3-1 win over Australia.

Rabada sustained the injury in the Johannesburg Test of the recently concluded Australia series. The injury will sideline him for three months.

Delhi Daredevils were dealt with a huge blow in their quest to win their maiden IPL trophy, that too just 2 days before the start of the eleventh edition.

Their ace fast bowler, Kagiso Rabada has been ruled out of the entire tournament due to a back injury.