Josh Hazlewood Injured? How RCB Pacer's Injury Could Be A Blessing For Their Mystery Pacer

RCB have Hazlewood replacement ready [Source: AP Photo]

The Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025 is set to resume this week after a brief suspension due to the border tensions between India and Pakistan. The league was suspended last week, but is all set to begin once again as the official re-schedule will be announced by Monday night.

The RCB team is in the top-4 and will need to win one more match to qualify for the playoffs. However, they will most likely be without their pace bowling talisman, Josh Hazlewood who is nursing a shoulder injury.

In case Hazlewood misses out on the remainder of the tournament, the team does have few potential options to replace him, but they already have an X-factor to replace him.

Nuwan Thushara, the perfect Josh Hazlewood replacement?

So far, the Sri Lankan pacer has not played a single match in the IPL, but Hazlewood's injury could be a chance for his redemption. With an unorthodox bowling action, similar to Lasith Malinga, Thushara could potentially solve one major issues for RCB in IPL 2025- death overs bowling.

This season, Hazlewood has done extremely well in death overs, and Bhuvneshwar Kumar has been decent and now with the Aussie unlikely to play a further part in the league, RCB don't have a potent death overs specialist.

(Thushara stats in T20Is)

The stats don't lie, Thushara has been excellent in T20Is for Sri Lanka, picking up 26 wickets at an economy of just 7.65 and most of the wickets have come in death overs. He has a brilliant yorker and on a batting friendly Chinnaswamy Stadium, RCB need an X-factor bowler and Thushara could be the answer for them. The only chinks in RCB's armour has been their bowling from 16-20 overs and bringing in Thushara could be a solution.

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