Rajasthan Royals hold emotional farewell for injured Ben Stokes

Rajasthan Royals star all-rounder Ben Stokes is no longer part of the ongoing season of the Indian Premier League. Stokes has been ruled out with a broken finger. Stokes suffered the injury during the Rajasthan Royals' first match of the tournament against Punjab Kings while taking a catch to get Chris Gayle's wicket. After dropping a catch earlier in the game against Punjab, Stokes ran hard from long-on and dived forward in a bid to complete the catch to dismiss Chris Gayle. However, Stokes immediately felt discomfort in his left hand. Despite that, the all-rounder continued to play the game and even came to open the innings for RR.

Ben Stokes, before leaving for England, received an emotional farewell from his IPL team. The all-rounder was handed a team jersey by newly-appointed captain Sanju Samson with his father's name on it. The English cricketer lost his father in December last year after fighting a short battle with brain cancer.

Ben Stokes likely to be out for at least 12 weeks

Meanwhile, England Cricket Board would now be concerned over their ace all-rounder's fitness, considering they have a packed nine months schedule to follow. After playing against New Zealand, England is going to host five Tests against India. England will then proceed for the T20 World Cup and the Ashes. Ben Stokes is very crucial for England all the format of the game. Thus, his injury will come as a massive blow to the reigning 50-over world champions.

Rajasthan Royals will take on Chennai Super Kings at the Wankhede Stadium on April 19. They both played two matches each, out of which both won one of the matches while lost the other. In the history of IPL, both teams have played 23 games in total, out of which 14 games have been won by Chennai Super Kings, whereas Rajasthan Royals have won 9 matches.

Rajasthan Royals Playing XI:

Manan Vohra, Jos Buttler, Sanju Samson (C & WK), Riyan Parag, David Miller, Shivam Dube, Rahul Tewatia, Chris Morris, Jaydev Unadkat, Mustafizur Rahman, Chetan Sakariya

Rajasthan Royals full squad:

Manan Vohra, Jos Buttler, Sanju Samson (C), Shivam Dube, David Miller, Riyan Parag, Rahul Tewatia, Chris Morris, Chetan Sakariya, Jaydev Unadkat, Mustafizur Rahman, Shreyas Gopal, Andrew Tye, Liam Livingstone, KC Cariappa, Mahipal Lomror, Jofra Archer, Mayank Markande, Anuj Rawat, Kartik Tyagi, Kuldip Yadav, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Akash Singh

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