IPL 2021: Mustafizur Rahman expected to miss the first two games of the tournament

Bangladesh's left-arm seamer Mustafizur Rahman will serve Rajasthan Royals in the forthcoming season of the Indian Premier League. As per reports, the Rajasthan based franchise will not be having the services of the fast bowler in their opening match of the tournament against Punjab Kings (PBKS) on April 12. The left-armer recently featured in the ODI and T20I series against New Zealand. He is scheduled to head back to Bangladesh on April 4. Even if Rahman takes the flight to India the very next day, he will have to serve a mandatory quarantine period of seven days before joining the Royals. Thus, it's assured that RR won't be having their premier overseas seamer in their tournament opener at the Wankhede Stadium.

Sanju Samson to lead RR in IPL 2021

Moreover, going by reports in BDcrictime Bangla, the 25-year-old pacer is also uncertain for the second encounter against Delhi Capitals (DC) on April 15 in Mumbai itself. However, Mustafizur can be in contention for the game if he can serve the mandatory quarantine period without any interruption. In the IPL mini-auction, the Royals bought the pacer's services at his base price of INR 1 crore. Mustafizur Rahman made his IPL debut back in the year 2016 for the Sunrisers Hyderabad. In that edition, he became the Emerging Player of the Season, and because of his impressive performance, SRH also won the championship for the first time. 

Going into the forthcoming IPL edition, the Rajasthan Royals have their task cut out. After winning the maiden edition back in 2008, they are yet to win their second IPL title. In the 13th edition, they started with two victories on the row in Sharjah but then lost their way. At the end of the tournament, they finished at the bottom of the points table. To make changes in the team, they released their skipper Steve Smith ahead of the auction in February and named Sanju Samson as their new captain.

List of players retained

Sanju Samson, Jofra Archer, Jos Buttler, Jaydev Unadkat, Riyan Parag, David Miller, Shreyas Gopal, Kartik Tyagi, Ben Stokes, Rahul Tewatia, Mahipal Lomror, Andrew Tye, Mayank Markande, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Anuj Rawat, Manan Vohra, Robin Uthappa.

List of players bought

Chris Morris (Rs 16.25 crore), Shivam Dube (Rs 4.40 crore), Mustafizur Rahman (Rs 1.00 crore), Akash Singh (Rs 0.20 crore), KC Cariappa (Rs 0.20 crore), Chetan Sakariya (Rs 1.20 crore), Liam Livingstone (Rs 0.75 crore), Kuldip Yadav (Rs 0.20 crore).

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