IPL 2024: MRI reveals small swelling above Mayank Yadav's hip; coach Langer hopes to see him play soon

Lucknow Super Giants’ (LSG) Mayank Yadav grabbed the headlines in the ongoing Indian Premier League (IPL) with his fiery fast bowling spells. The 21-year-old from Delhi kept the speed guns busy every time he came to bowl and clocked in excess of 155 clicks with ease and with consistency.

Yadav played three matches in the IPL with an economy rate of 6 runs per over and best bowling figures of 3/14 but soon found himself in the midst of fitness issues after he walked out of the field after bowling just one over against Gujarat Titans.

He started with a three-wicket burst against Punjab Kings and followed it up with another three wicket outing against Royal Challengers Bengaluru. However, a visibly struggling Yadav was carted for three boundaries in the only over he bowled against Gujarat Titans and walked out of the park soon after.

Just after two full matches, workload management became the talk of the town over Mayank Yadav. Soon after the GT match, Vinod Bisht, the CEO of LSG, said the speedster felt soreness in his abdominal area, and he hoped to see the 21-year-old in action very soon. “Mayank felt soreness in lower abdominal area and as a precaution we are managing his workload over the next week . We hope to see him soon on the field,” Bisht said.

On the eve of LSG’s match against Delhi Capitals LSG head coach Justin Langer did not sound optimistic of Yadav’s immediate return and said the fast bowler could miss at least the next two matches.

Speaking on the eve of the match, Langer said an MRI showed a small swelling above his hip area and hoped he would be 'back bowling again soon.' “He felt a little bit of tightness at the top of his hip leading into the last game, but that was about a one-out-of-ten pain, and we thought that there were clinical signs. Everything through the doctors and the physios seemed perfectly okay. He bowled that first over (against GT) and started feeling something in his hip. But we had an MRI scan, and there is a small swelling in there. So, we are very hopeful he’ll start building himself up and be back bowling again soon,” the Australian said.

LSG play the Delhi Capitals on April 12 at home and then travel to Kolkata to meet Kolkata Knight Riders on April 14 and will be back in Lucknow to host the Chennai Super Kings on April 19. Langer hopes to have Yadav fit as a fiddle for the CSK match. “The plan is to have him fit for the match against CSK. We want him to play every game if possible. But he’ll be working towards it; he’s working very hard every day to be ready for whatever our next game is. He won’t play tomorrow (April 12) and with the very short turnaround, it is unlikely that he plays these two games (vs DC and KKR) but he is certainly working towards playing whenever he possibly can,” Langer concluded.