IPL 2017: Gujarat Lions opener Brendon McCullum ruled out of the tournament
IPL 10 has been a season to forget for Gujarat Lions as they have lost many important players to injuries as a result of which they have been knocked out of the tournament. In addition to this, their opening batsman Brendon McCullum has been ruled out of the remainder of the IPL after suffering a hamstring injury during Lions’ game against Delhi Daredevils in which Rishabh Pant’s 43-ball 97 knocked them out of the tournament.
McCullum suffered the injury when he dived acrobatically to stop a boundary off the bat of Sanju Samson in the tenth over of the innings and held his left hamstring immediately after making the save. The team management is yet to announce a replacement for the former Kiwi skipper. An update about the player replacing McCullum can be expected anytime soon as the franchise have only four overseas players in their squad.
Dwayne Bravo sustained a hamstring injury during the Big Bash League and was ruled out of the IPL midway through the tournament without playing a single game. England opener Jason Roy left the squad to join his national team for the ODI series against Ireland while their best bowler, Andrew Tye, was ruled out because of a shoulder injury he sustained while fielding against Mumbai Indians. This leaves Gujarat with just four overseas players- Aaron Finch, Dwayne Smith, James Faulkner and UAE’s Chirag Suri.
In all likelihood, Suri will make his debut against Kings XI Punjab on May 7 as the team management doesn’t have any other overseas professional to play in the XI.
Extra cover: Chirag Suri: The IPL's UAE entrant vows to make his presence felt
McCullum, who is set to fly back to New Zealand, thanked his teammates, coaches, support staff, owners and the fans on Twitter as he might have played his last match for the franchise (the status of both the player and the team for the 2018 edition is still uncertain).
Gujarat Lions have just six points after 11 games and became the second team after Royal Challengers Bangalore to be knocked out of the tournament. McCullum was Gujarat's second highest run-getter this season with 319 runs in 11 matches at a strike rate of 147.