IPL 2020: SRH name Prithvi Raj Yarra as Bhuvneshwar Kumar's replacement

Injury to key players have troubled most of the teams in the ongoing edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL). Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) suffered the most so far with two of their main players, Mitchell Marsh and Bhuvneshwar Kumar, being ruled out of the tournament. Marsh got injured in their first match itself while Bhuvi sustained an injury while bowling against the Chennai Super Kings (CSK) last week.

Jason Holder has already joined the squad as Marsh’s replacement while on Monday, SRH were dealt with another big blow with Bhuvneshwar Kumar‘s news. He will take close to six weeks to regain his fitness. And the franchise has picked another pacer Prithvi Raj Yarra as his replacement.

SRH’s official Twitter handle confirmed the news and also wished their ace pace bowler a speedy recovery. Prithvi Raj Yarra played for the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) and featured in two matches before being sidelined. He picked up a wicket and bowled five overs in his limited appearances.

Prithvi Raj Yarra hasn’t played a T20 since April 2019

Interestingly, Prithvi Raj Yarra hasn’t played a single T20 game since playing in the IPL last year. However, his record is impressive in the other formats of the game. The 22-year-old left-arm pacer has picked 39 wickets in 11 first-class matches at an average of 21.51. In 11 List-A, the youngster has sent back 15 batsmen to the pavilion and looks an exciting prospect going ahead in the season.

Prithvi is the third left-arm seamer in SRH squad T Natarajan and Khaleel Ahmed also present. While Natarajan has impressed bowling the most yorkers in the ongoing IPL season so far, the latter was left out in the previous game after a few outings. It was also be interesting to see if the management prefers Prithvi ahead of Khaleel once he joins the team.

However, SRH will miss their lead bowler Bhuvneshwar Kumar after the way their pacers were hammered in the erstwhile outing. They will next face the Kings XI Punjab (KXIP) on Thursday in Dubai and will be looking to returning to the winning ways having lost three matches out of five already.