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'He kicked his toe on the bed, got an infection': LSG head coach Justin Langer reveals another injury setback for star pacer on road to recovery

DC vs LSG: Lucknow Super Giants may have to bank of their spinners and young inexperienced pacers in the absence of pace trio.

Sports Tak

• Mon • 24 Mar 2025

Lucknow Super Giants' coach Justin Langer gestures during the warm up before the start of the Indian Premier League (IPL) match against Royal Challengers Bengaluru at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru on April 2, 2024.

Highlights:

Mayank Yadav's return has been further delayed due to toe injury.

LSG head coach Justin Langer hopes Mayank returns later in the tournament.

Langer said that he watches videos of Mayank bowling everyday at the CoE.

Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) have a depleted fast-bowling attack going into the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025 because of injury to four of their fast bowlers. While LSG have replaced Mohsin Khan with veteran fast-bowling all-rounder Shardul Thakur, they still have an underpowered pace attack. On the eve of their campaign opener against Delhi Capitals (DC), LSG head coach Justin Langer revealed that their star pacer Mayank Yadav has faced another injury on his road to recovery. The young tearaway fast bowler kicked his toe on the bed and suffered an infection. His return has been further delayed due to the injury.

"Mayank, who everyone was very excited about last year, he was going quite well (coming back from a back injury), and he kicked his toe on the bed," Langer told the reporters on March 23.

"He got an infection in his toe. It's put his rehab back about a week or two weeks. But he's up and running. We regularly see videos of him bowling. I saw a video of his yesterday. So, hopefully by the back end of the tournament, Mayank will be up and ready to go for us."

Mayank was retained by the franchise for a massive amount of Rs 11 crore. He picked up a back injury in his debut T20I series against Bangladesh last year. Since then, he has been out of action. The 22-year-old is set to miss several matches in this season as well.

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Langer hopeful of pacers' return but ready to deal with the challenge

Langer who has also been the head coach of the Australian men's team knows how vulnerable fast bowlers are to injuries. He admits that the game plan will change in the absence of Mayank, Akash Deep and Avesh Khan but ready to deal with the challenge.

"Yeah, we're very aware that four of our bowlers are unavailable for the first game and probably a couple of the guys for a few games down the track," Langer said.

"But that's sport, that's cricket, fast bowling usually gives you some headaches but you just have to adapt. And we've all been in the business long enough to know that the fast-bowling injuries is something that you always have to prepare for. You never hope for it, you never wish for it but you prepare for it. So, we might have to change our game plan a little, but knowing that as the tournament goes on, we'll have some of these excellent bowlers to come back into our attack for us."

LSG to bank on inexperienced pacers

Currently, they have Shamar Joseph and Akash Singh along with new recruit Thakur who can feature in the match against GT. It is yet to be seen whether they will hand a debut cap to any other pacer as Mitchell Marsh cannot bowl due to his injury as well.