Rajasthan Royals suffered a big blow ahead of the second leg of IPL 2021 with their star batsman Liam Livingstone injuring his shoulder while fielding near the boundary rope during his team Lancashire’s County Championship fixture against Warwickshire on Monday (August 30). Taking to their official Twitter, Lancashire informed about Livingstone’s mishap. “More Red Rose injury woe as Liam Livingstone appears to have damaged a shoulder diving to stop a boundary. He’s gone off the field and is replaced by Richard Gleeson,” read their tweet from August 30. Livingstone’s ouster could be the biggest of blows for the Royals, given his exceptional run of form of late.
The 28-year-old conjured a chart-topping, MVP performance in the inaugural edition of The Hundred: 348 runs from nine innings at 58 and a strike rate of 178.46. Rajasthan Royals have already named replacements for Andrew Tye as Tabraiz Shamsi and for Jofra Archer as Glenn Phillips. Both these players have been in excellent form in the T20 internationals for their countries. Yesterday, Oshane Thomas and Evin Lewis joined the Rajasthan Royals setup, for the UAE leg of IPL 2021 as replacements for Ben Stokes and Jos Buttler. While Stokes has taken a mental health break, Buttler has decided to skip the tournament as he awaits the birth of his second child. Stokes had announced his decision to take a break in July while Buttler featured in the first three Tests against India and will now skip the fourth Test to be with his wife. Thomas has featured in four IPL matches so far - for Royals - and has bagged five wickets. Lewis has had a longer run in IPL - for Mumbai Indians - having scored 430 runs from 16 matches. Rajasthan Royals are at the 5th position in the points table with 3 wins in 7 games.
