England's star all-rounder Liam Livingstone has given a big update on his participation in the ongoing Indian Premier League (IPL) for Punjab Kings (PBKS). Livingstone hasn't turned up for any competitive cricket after picking up a knee injury on his Test debut in Pakistan four months ago. His knee injury was followed by an ankle injury last year that flared up in recent weeks which only made his rehab tougher.
Livingstone's participation in the PBKS' match against Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) on April 9 is still in limbo.
The 29-year-old, who was retained by PBKS for Rs 11.50 crore in the IPL 2023 auction last year, while giving an update on his availability told Sky Sports that he is almost there and is set to link up with his franchise soon. "(I'm) getting there, finally," Livingstone said on LancsTV's coverage of Lancashire's opening County Championship fixture against Surrey.
“It's been a long road: three or four days a week at the gym over the last three or four months. Maybe towards the end of this week, or start of next week, I'll fly out to India and get going again,” he added.
Livingstone also said that he is feeling much better after taking injections midway last week.
"Feeling much better. I had some injections midway last week. It's settled it down a lot, finally been able to get outside and do some running and get back to proper cricket stuff. That's probably been about four or five days now, so just trying to build back up to match fitness now."
Livingstone had recovered from the ankle injury to play in the T20 World Cup which England won.
"I got over my ankle to play in the World Cup, then my knee has been a bit of a niggly one. I finally sorted that out and my ankle flared up again. Hopefully they're both under control now and it'll be nice to get back playing finally," he said.
"It's been a difficult couple of months, but finally now I'm like a little kid wanting to get back playing cricket again. Hopefully over the next couple of days, I'll get the clearance to head out there. I'm really looking forward to getting back out, getting back playing, and hopefully over the next 48 hours or so I'll finally get that," he added.
Livingstone is a key player for PBKS and his 437 runs at a strike rate of 182.08 in the previous edition only validates his importance.
He also dropped a hint on his return to PBKS camp as he said that he will be flying out to India by the end of this week or next.
"It's been a long road. Finally, there's light at the end of the tunnel. Maybe towards the end of this week, start of next week, I'll fly out to India and get going again. Hopefully, over the next couple of days I'll get the clearance to head out there," said Livingstone.
"It went from one of the highest to one of the lowest parts of my career within 24 hours. Something you do realise is how special it is to be able to do what we do. We're very privileged and you don't really understand that until you get it taken away from you. It's given me a bit of time off, it's given me certainly a lot of time to refresh mentally," Livingstone added.
He also spoke about his ambitions for the all-important Ashes. He said that it would be stupid of him to say that he doesn't have ambitions of playing the Ashes.
"Hopefully the next couple of weeks goes to plan and I can get back to playing cricket, hopefully have another successful IPL season and then who knows what will happen in the summer? Certainly I'd be stupid to sit here and say that I wouldn't have ambitions of playing in the Ashes," said Livingstone.
PBKS' squad for IPL 2023:
Shikhar Dhawan (c), Shahrukh Khan, Matthew Short, Prabhsimran Singh, Bhanuka Rajapaksa, Jitesh Sharma, Gurnoor Singh, Rishi Dhawan, Liam Livingstone, Atharva Taide, Arshdeep Singh, Nathan Ellis, Baltej Singh, Kagiso Rabada, Harpreet Brar, Rahul Chahar, Sam Curran, Sikanadar Raza, Harpreet Bhatia, Vidwath Kaverappa, Shivam Singh, and Mohit Rathe.
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