Good news has come for Royal Challengers Bangalore. Fast bowler Josh Hazlewood and M Chinnaswamy have come to the field for practice. Hazlewood has not played any cricket match for the last four months. He suffered a hamstring injury in an Australian domestic cricket match. For this reason he could not play in all the matches of the Ashes series. On the other hand, Pat Cummins has returned to Australia.
Josh Hazlewood has reached M Chinnaswamy Stadium for practice. He has taken rounds of the ground, but has not started practicing yet. Hazlewood could not play in the first match against Sunrisers Hyderabad. Although RCB won that match by 6 wickets.
The fitness of star fast bowler Josh Hazlewood is very important for the Bengaluru team, because last season he had made a huge contribution in making the Bengaluru team the champion. He took 22 wickets in 12 matches for Royal Challengers Bangalore in IPL 2025. Earlier it was told that Hazlewood may remain out of the first few matches of IPL 2026. Even now RCB has not issued any statement as to when Hazlewood will be able to return to the field.
Pat Cummins returns to Australia
Sunrisers Hyderabad's regular captain Pat Cummins has been struggling with a back injury. According to a report by ESPN Cricinfo, Cummins has gone back to Australia for investigation. On Thursday, Sunrisers Hyderabad had registered a big win of 65 runs over Kolkata Knight Riders, after which Cummins flew to Australia.
RCB won the first match
Defending champion RCB had easily won its first match of IPL 2026. The target of 202 runs against Sunrisers Hyderabad was easily chased by Royal Challengers Bangalore in 15.4 overs. The next challenge before RCB is Chennai Super Kings, which is to be played on Sunday. It will be interesting to see whether Hazlewood will be seen practicing in the nets before this match or not. At present he has not started practicing, so he may not be able to return for a few matches.
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