Fast bowler Matt Henry of New Zealand has been selected by Lucknow to take David Willey’s position after he withdrew from the competition for personal reasons.
In the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024, David Willey would be replaced by Matt Henry, a fast bowler from New Zealand, according to Lucknow. For personal reasons, Willey, who announced his retirement from international cricket following the ODI World Cup last year, withdrew from the competition. The statement was made by LSG prior to their Saturday, March 30 match at the Bharat Ratna Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee Ekana Cricket Stadium in Lucknow, against Shikhar Dhawan’s Punjab.
Willey will miss the first part of the IPL after playing in the PSL and ILT20 competitions back-to-back in March, according to head coach of Lucknow Justin Langer. The season before, their top pacer, Mark Wood, who took five wickets in the lucrative T20 tournament, also withdrew his name.With a net run rate of-1.000, the Lucknow squad, captained by KL Rahul, is presently mired at the bottom of the table. They opened the season at Sawai Mansingh Stadium, losing to Sanju Samson’s Rajasthan by 20 runs.
Lucknow will want to get off to a fast start and start their campaign, since seven clubs have already won at least one game in the tournament.
Henry, on the other hand, participated in the IPL with both Chennai and Punjab. The seamer took 1 wicket at an economy rate of 14.2 during his 2 IPL games for Punjab in 2017.Henry took 11 wickets in 7 matches last year, but a hamstring problem kept him out of the World Cup. He did, however, make a comeback in the five-match T20I series against Pakistan, when he claimed five wickets.
During New Zealand’s home Test series against Australia and South Africa, Henry was at his best, taking 23 wickets from 4 matches, including 2 five-wicket hauls. Henry has taken 151 wickets at an economy rate of 8.39 in 131 T20 matches.
