RCB sign Vishnu Vinod as replacement for KL Rahul

The Royal Challengers Bangalore have named Kerala wicket-keeper batsman Vishnu Vinod as the replacement for injured KL Rahul. The star Indian opener, KL Rahul, was ruled out of the tournament even before the tournament had commenced. The RCB camp was dented by his exclusion and had recently conducted a selection trails for roping in a replacement for him.

In another replacement news, the Australian pacer Ben Hilfenhaus has been added to the Delhi Daredevils camp as a replacement for JP Duminy. The veteran South African batsman JP Duminy opted out of the IPL 10 citing personal reasons. Hilfenhaus is an experienced T20 bowler who has played international cricket for Australia. He has 27 Tests, 25 ODIs and 7 T20Is for the national side.

Talking about the performances of the two replacements in the tournament, Hilfenhaus has played in the IPL before and was most successful on the personal front when on the roster for the Chennai Superkings. On the other hand, it will be the maiden IPL stint for the 23-year old Vishnu Vinod. He has been in decent form in the recent domestic tournaments and has 16 sixes to his name in T20 cricket.

Recently, N Jagadeesan, Vishnu Vinod, Prashant Chopra and Pavan Deshpande, had participated in the trials of the RCB camp under the watchful supervision of head coach Daniel Vettori. Apparently, Vinod had impressed the most and now finds himself with an IPL contract. During the trials, the RCB overseas bowlers including the likes of Tymal Mills and Shane Watson had bowled to the rookie Indian batsmen.

Vinod had shown some special liking to Tymal Mills and had showed a glimpse of power hitting in the trials. Also, his wicketkeeping credentials were an added factor for his inclusion in the side. Earlier, the Rising Pune Supergiant had roped in Washington Sundar as a replacement for Ravichandran Ashwin. Also, the Kings XI Punjab had named Indian speedster Ishant Sharma as the replacement for Murali Vijay.