New Delhi: The Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) have received a double blow a day before the start of the Indian Premier League (IPL). While the T20 tournament is set to kick off on March 31 (Friday) at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad, it is now being learnt that fast bowler Josh Hazlewood will be missing the initial stage of the tournament.

The same has been confirmed in a report by Cricket Australia's digital content website which revelas that the 32-year-old continues to recover from an Achilles problem which was the injury that ruled him out of the four-match Test series, the Border-Gavaskar Tophy in India. Even though the report said that Hazlewood could play a part in the second half of the IPL, a final call on whether he should play or not will be taken after consulting Cricket Australia's medical staff.

The second bad news for the RCB camp is that their explosive batter and spinning option Glenn Maxwell remains doubtful for the team's opening match against the Mumbai Indian at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bangalore on April 2. The Bigshow had broken his leg in a freakish accident in November last year and only recently made his comeback to the cricket in the ODI series against India.

However, after having featured in the series opener, he was benched for the second and the third T20Is with the Chairman of Selectors, Cricket Australia, mentioning how the 34-year-old found the ODI comeback more demanding than he had imagined.

Earlier, Rajat Patidar had already been demeed unavailble for the team's first few matches due to a heel injury and now the news of Maxwell's uncertainty for the opener and Hazlewood missing multiple mathces will be a further setback for the Faf du Plessis-led team. In IPL 2022, RCB had secured a playoffs berth but the trophy yet again eluded them as they got eliminated after losing the Qualifier 2.

(With Inputs from PTI)