Josh Hazlewood may miss IPL 2026 opening match: RCB's Josh Hazlewood may be out of the opening match for RCB.

New Delhi: The schedule of the first part for the Indian Premier League 2026 has been released. The first match of the tournament will be played between Royal Challengers Bangalore and Sunrisers Hyderabad on 28 March. RCB team is the defending champion, but before that a bad news has come for the team. Actually, the team's star pacer Josh Hazlewood is still recovering from his injury. Hazlewood has still not got the green signal from the physio to enter the field.

In such a situation, it is almost certain that Hazlewood will be out of the team's opening match on March 28. Hazlewood has not played a match since the Sheffield Shield match between New South Wales and Victoria in November, after which he was ruled out of the 2025-26 Ashes series. Although he was later included in Australia's T20 World Cup squad, Hazlewood suffered a calf injury just five days before the first match against Ireland.

Hazlewood may be out of the first few matches

Steve Smith replaced Hazlewood in the team, but he also got a chance to play. Australia's condition became such that it was out of the group stage itself. Overall, Hazlewood has been struggling with hamstring, Achilles and calf injuries for the last few months. He is still under the care of the physio and his participation in the IPL depends on whether he gets clearance or not.

An RCB source told Hindustan Times, “Royal Challengers Bangalore is dependent on Hazlewood for its bowling plans, as this Australian pacer played a key role in the team's historic first title win in the IPL 2025 season. The franchise also has foreign pace options like Nuwan Thushara and Jacob Duffy, but Hazlewood's experience is far different from other pacers. In such a situation, it became very important for RCB to play him. Is.”