IPL 2020: RCB pacer Navdeep Saini sustains thumb injury; physio unsure of his recovery period

The Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) suffered a major hiccup to their Indian Premier League (IPL) on Sunday. Chennai Super Kings (CSK) breezed past RCB with an eight-wicket win. However, the Virat Kohli-led side is still sitting pretty in the top three of the points table. But the team has dealt a blow with an injury to their ace pacer Navdeep Saini.

In the 18th over of CSK’s innings, Saini tried to stop the ball off his own bowling and ended up injuring his right thumb. Soon after the over, he walked off the field only to know that he has split his webbing and has got stitches now. RCB physio Evan Speechly is now unsure about his recovery time which must have left the management worried.

“Saini has split his webbing in the last ball there. He obviously got hit on the thumb on the right hand. He has just split the webbing over there, fortunately, we had a good hand surgeon, he stitched up nicely. So we could just monitor over the night and check it after getting ready for the next game,” Speechly was quoted as saying by Times Now.

RCB physio hopeful of Navdeep Saini recovering soon

Evan Speechly pointed out that RCB skipper Virat Kohli had sustained a similar injury in 2016 and he ended up playing with stitches scoring a scintillating century. But he also stated that the two injuries cannot be compared and hoped for Navdeep Saini to recover ahead of the next game. RCB next face Mumbai Indians (MI) in Abu Dhabi where both the sides will be keen on sealing their playoffs spot.

“Virat four-five years ago he had it in Kolkata, we managed to stop the bleeding and he smashed a 100 after we got a plastic surgeon who had stitched it. Unfortunately you cannot compare the two injuries. Some people can manage it and some can’t.

“Its also because Saini’s injury is on his bowling hand so it puts a lot of pressure on him so I cannot be sure when he will be good to go, I am hoping that he will be good to play in the next game and the rest of the tournament,” Speechly added. Saini isn’t having a great IPL this year having picked only five wickets in 11 matches but the management has backed him and would like to see him back on the field soon.