Two-time IPL champions Kolkata Knight Riders are gearing up for the season ahead, and to add to the excitement, star batsman Chris Lynn has revealed that he is inching closer to regaining full fitness from his shoulder injury. He is on track to being available for KKR’s first match of the Vivo IPL 2018 - against Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) on April 8 at Eden Gardens.
The T20 superstar has suffered from multiple shoulder injuries in the past. Most recently, he dislocated his right shoulder while playing for Australia in a T20I tri-series (involving New Zealand and England) last month, which kept him out of the action for the remainder of that series and the Pakistan Super League.
But here’s the good news: he has now resumed training and is set to begin practice alongside his fellow state players - Billy Stanlake, who will turn out for Sunrisers Hyderabad in the IPL, and Ben Cutting, who is set to represent Mumbai Indians.
"It's tracking really nicely," Lynn toldcricket.com.au of his recovery. "It's a short turnaround with the timeframe that we've got but it's all going well.
"The docs and the physios are happy so that's all I can do. Fingers crossed I can keep going in the right direction and try to make myself available for the first game of the IPL"
The star-studded KKR team took another blow when Windies all-rounder Andre Russell pulled his hamstring during a PSL match. While giving an update on both players, Venky Mysore, Kolkata Knight Riders’ (KKR) CEO, provided a sigh of reliefs for the fans, saying both players will be available for selection in the side’s opening clash against RCB.
“We are expecting Lynn and Russell to play on April 8. They will join the camp,” Mysore said, on the sidelines of a book launch (Sourav Ganguly’s ‘A Century Is Not Enough’) in Kolkata.
Lynn was one of the revelations for KKR in IPL 2017. He smashed 295 runs in just seven games, and scored them at an average of 49.16. He’ll be itching to join his fellow Knights soon, and with that positive piece of news, we can expect a cracking start to our season opener of Vivo IPL 2018.
