Royal Challengers Bangalore have been dealt an injury below two weeks before the latest season of IPL get underway. England allrounder Will Jacks, who was signed by RCB at the IPL mini auction last December, has sustained a muscle injury and been ruled out of the entire season.

Jacks was roped in by the franchise for a whopping Rs 3.2 crore and would have been an ideal cover for allrounder Glenn Maxwell. However, he ended up injuring himself during the 2nd ODI against Bangladesh recently and subsequent scans followed by consultations with a specialist mean he will have to skip IPL 2023.

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Jacks made his T20I debut last September in Pakistan before making his Test bow against the same opponent later in December. He was given his ODI debut earlier this month against Bangladesh.

The 24-year-old has 2802 runs from 109 T20s at a strike-rate of 157.94 including one century and 23 fifties. The injury setback could also hamper his hopes of staking a claim for the Men’s ODI World Cup slated to be held later this year in India.

As per ESPNcricinfo, RCB have entered discussions with New Zealand allrounder Michael Bracewell as a potential replacement for Jacks.  Bracewell had entered the IPL mini auction but at a base price of Rs one crore, there were no takers for the Kiwi star.

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RCB will kick off their IPL 2023 campaign against five-time champions Mumbai Indians on April 2. They will host MI at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in what will be their first home fixture in four years.

RCB Squad: Virat Kohli, Glenn Maxwell, Mohammad Siraj, Faf Du Plessis, Harshal Patel, Wanindu Hasaranga, Dinesh Karthik, Shahbaz Ahemad, Rajat Patidar, Anuj Rawat, Akash Deep, Josh Hazlewood, Mahipal Lomror, Finn Allen, Suyash Prabhudessai, Karn Sharma, Siddharth Kaul, David Willey, Reece Topley, Himanshu Sharma, Will Jacks (ruled out), Manoj Bhandage, Rajan Kumar, Avinash Singh, Sonu Yadav

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