Lendl Simmons ruled out of the IPL due to injury

It seems like problems are rounding up IPL side Mumbai Indians from all sides as the team suffered yet another injury setback after their in-form opener Lendl Simmons was ruled out of action for 8-10 weeks due to injury, which means he won’t be available for the remainder of the season. Simmons has been Mumbai’s batting mainstay, providing consistency at the top.

Prior to this Simmons had missed out on the major part of the World T20 due to a back injury. The news came from Mumbai Indians coach Ricky Ponting who talking to the presenter during the game said that the West Indian right-hander has been ruled out for the tournament and needs at least 8-10 weeks to recover.

Though this is a big blow to their basic plan, Mumbai Indian might just not feel the impact of his absence as New Zealand premier batsman Martin Guptill has been included in the squad as a replacement for Simmons.

Guptill has been in blazing form since last year and has been milking runs effortlessly in limited overs format. He played in only four games last year and made 141 runs at an average of 35.25 while maintaining a splendid strike rate of 142.42. The recently concluded World T20 was also pretty successful and similar as compared to his performance in 2015. He made 140 runs in 4 games at an average of 35.00 with a strike rate of 157.30.

Mumbai Indians will surely hope that the stylish Kiwi batsman continues his good form with the bat and perform a level higher than what he has done previously.

Earlier, pace bowling spearhead Lasith Malinga was reported to be unavailable for the first half of the tournament due to fitness and NOC issue with the Sri Lanka cricket.

#MI coach Ricky Ponting says, Lendl Simmons ruled out of the tournament, needs 8-10 weeks to recover #IPL9 #KKRvMI

— Cricbuzz (@cricbuzz) April 13, 2016

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