Livingstone leave IPL to attend knee niggle; Buttler, Will Jacks, Topley too return to England
New Delhi, May 13: Punjab Kings’ all-rounder Liam Livingstone on Monday returned to England from the ongoing IPL to undergo a knee recuperation ahead of the next month’s T20 World Cup.
Along with Livingstone, Jos Buttler (Rajasthan Royals), Will Jacks and Reece Topley (Royal Challengers Bengaluru) also have left the IPL to join England squad ahead of the T20I series against Pakistan, beginning on May 22.
The Kings are already eliminated from this IPL after managing just four wins from 12 matches and they are currently at the bottom of the table with eight points.
"IPL done for another year, had to get my knee sorted for the upcoming World Cup,” Livingstone wrote on his Instagram wall.
“Thanks once again to the Punjab Kings fans for all their love and support. Disappointing season as a team and personally, but as always, I loved every minute of playing in the IPL,” he added.
Hence, Livingstone will not be available for PBKS’ last two matches of the tournament against Rajasthan Royals (May 15) and Sunrisers Hyderabad (May 19).
The injury is not of serious nature but the England management, as per ESPNcricinfo, decided to give him more time to get it treated prior to their home T20I series against Pakistan.
After that series, the defending champions will travel to the West Indies for their T20 World Cup engagements, starting on June 4 against Scotland in Bridgetown, Barbados.
Livingstone had a lean IPL this season, scoring 111 runs from seven matches and took just three wickets.
Meanwhile, other England players in the IPL who are part of their World Cup squad – Moeen Ali (CSK), Sam Curran, Jonny Bairstow (PBKS) and Phil Salt (KKR) – will be home-bound very soon.
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Busy making reels: Kanhaiya Kumar stokes row with remark on Fadnavis's wife
Nagpur, Nov 14: Congress leader Kanhaiya Kumar on Thursday took a personal jibe at Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis over the latter's recent comment about countering "vote jihad' with "vote dharmyudh".
Is it that common people will fight this "dharmyudh" while children of leaders will study abroad far away from all this, Kumar asked.
"Or will it happen that we will fight to protect 'dharma' while the deputy CM's wife makes Instagram reels," he said addressing a rally for the Congress in Nagpur South West seat.
If "dharma" needs to be protected, then everyone will do it together, Kumar added.
In a rally recently, Fadnavis had said "vote jihad" took place in the Lok Sabha polls and members of a particular community ensured BJP did not get their votes. He claimed the Mahayuti lost the Dhule Lok Sabha seat due to this voting pattern in Malegaon.
Attacking Fadnavis, the former student activist asked why the BJP leader had a problem with sharing the CM's tenure with Uddhav Thackeray when he went on to be CM Eknath Shinde's deputy.
"Why did you split Balasaheb Thackeray's Shiv Sena? If you believed the NCP was corrupt, why did you induct its faction into the Mahayuti? This is because Shinde is not CM but chowkidar of corrupt Gujarati businessman," Kumar said in a swipe at the BJP-led ruling alliance.
In Nagpur South West, Congress' Prafulla Gudhade Patil is pitted against Fadnavis.
