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Rajasthan Royals (RR) batter Shimron Hetmyer is not featuring in the upcoming 2024 Indian Premier League (IPL) clash against the Delhi Capitals (DC) at the Arun Jaitley Stadium on Tuesday, May 7. The left-handed batter has apparently sustained a niggle and has to miss out on the away encounter for the Sanju Samson-led side.
Hetmyer has not had much to do with the bat down the order, with RR's imperious top order doing most of the heavy lifting. The Caribbean ace, however, has been brilliant whenever called upon and has scored 83 runs in seven innings at a strike rate of 184.44 and has been unbeaten across four of those outings.
He scored 27 runs off 10 deliveries in RR's win over the Punjab Kings (PBKS) and also scored 13 runs off nine balls in the narrow loss to the SunRisers Hyderabad (SRH) recently.
RR skipper Sanju Samson confirmed during the toss that their lower middle order has a revamp because of niggles to both Shimron Hetmyer and Dhruv Jurel.
"We would like to bowl first. Looks like a good wicket to chase on, but let's see how it goes. We are comfortable doing both, have to look at our team strengths and weaknesses, and we wanted to bowl first today. We have a couple of players unavailable. Jurel and Hetmyer have niggles and are missing out," Samson said after opting to bowl first.
Hetmyer was recently named in the West Indies squad for the 2024 T20 World Cup and will be hoping that the blow is nothing more than a niggle, so that his participation in the tournament next month is not affected.
How does RR's middle order look without Jurel and Hetmyer?
RR have not been forced to make too many changes to their red-hot batting unit as they have been blessed with both form and no injury threats so far. The visitors have the same top four as usual, but in the absence of Jurel and Hetmyer, they have been forced to turn to their bench.
Their 2024 IPL mini-auction purchase Shubham Dubey comes in along with South Africa international Donovan Ferreira. Apart from these two players, RR also have Rovman Powell in the mix to make an impact in the death overs.
