Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) have suffered a big blow just before the start of the seventeenth season of the Indian Premier League (IPL). The highly-anticipated IPL 2024 is scheduled to get underway on Friday (March 22) with reigning champions Chennai Super Kings locking horns against Royal Challengers Bangalore in the tournament opener.

On the other hand, LSG will open their campaign against Rajasthan Royals on Sunday (March 24). Two days before the start of their campaign, LSG’s head coach Justin Langer has confirmed that the team will miss the services of fast-bowler David Willey.

The former England pacer will miss the start of IPL 2024 due to personal reasons. Having played for Royal Challengers Bangalore in the last two editions of the IPL, David Willey was set to play for the Lucknow-based franchise for the first time in his IPL career. LSG had signed him at his base price of INR 2 crore in December’s auction.

LSG to miss David Willey:

David Willey spent the last two months playing in various T20 leagues. At the start of the year, he played for Abu Dhabi Knight Riders in ILT20 before plying his trade for Multan Sultans in the recently concluded Pakistan Super League (PSL). With Sultans appearing in the final, the left-arm pacer was in action when the title decider took place on Monday (March 18).

Before David Willey, his former England teammate Mark Wood was pulled out of IPL 2024 by the ECB to manage his workload ahead of the T20 World Cup. Later, LSG signed West Indies sensation Shamar Joseph as a replacement. As of now, the franchise has not signed a replacement for David Willey who might participate in the IPL in the latter stages.

“With Mark Wood pulling out of the tournament and also David Willey won’t be coming now either, that means we lack some experience,” Langer said.

“But what I’ve also seen in the last couple of days is that we have enormous talent. Some of our guys have had some injuries but they all look very fit at the moment.

“They look fit and healthy and they’re very hungry, so we’ll just have to manage them well so that we can get them through and work through the whole tournament, not just the start of the tournament. We’ve got one overseas player up our sleeve if required, where we might be able to add some experience,” he added.

Talking about Langer, the upcoming season will be his first as a coach in the IPL. The former Australia head coach will be aiming to make an instant impact and guide LSG to their first IPL title.

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