IPL 2021: Rassie van der Dussen not to join Rajasthan Royals

Rassie van der Dussen, the South African batsman, as per reports, won’t be joining the Rajasthan Royals (RR) for the 2021 Indian Premier League (IPL). Earlier, the right-hander was reported to have been roped in as a replacement of Ben Stokes, who was ruled out due to a finger injury. Stokes only played RR’s opening game against Punjab Kings (PBKS) where he sustained the injury.

Thereafter, he returned to England in order to recover from his injury. The Royals also lost Jofra Archer due to a hand injury and Liam Livingstone due to ‘bubble fatigue’. The omissions have significantly jolted RR, who are straining in the second half of the points table. Archer was the Most Valuable Player (MVP) in IPL 2020 despite the team finishing at the bottom of the ladder.

Rassie van der Dussen denied NOC

As far as Van der Dussen is concerned, as per ESPNcricinfo, he got a visa to India, but couldn’t get a No Objection Certificate (NOC) from Cricket South Africa (CSA). The Proteas board, reportedly, cited injury as the reason for denying Van der Dussen the NOC. The right-hander has been in tremendous form in T20 cricket with his last five scores being 37, 25*, 74*, 34*, and 52.

The Royals are next set to lock horns with the Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) on Sunday, May 2 at the Arun Jaitley Stadium in New Delhi. In their previous game at the same venue, Mumbai Indians (MI) beat them by seven wickets. Jos Buttler and Sanju Samson scored in the 40s with support from Yashasvi Jaiswal and Shivam Dube, who both got useful scores in the 30s.

However, MI’s Quinton de Kock took the match away from them with an unbeaten 50-ball 70. After the victory, Samson, RR’s skipper, said that his team was quite a few runs short.

“Surely, a few runs short, maybe around 20-25 runs short. We were going on nicely (with the bat), but didn’t finish well. The bowlers have been doing their job well, but as batsmen, we need to get them a good score to defend,” Samson said.

It was a good wicket, the ball was coming on nicely and they (MI) batted really well, as a team, we will need to score more runs as a batting group. Trust yourself, play positive and fearless cricket – that’s all one should do,” he added.