Ahead of IPL 2024, Mumbai Indians have named Luke Wood as replacement for the injured Jason Behrendorff. Wood is a left-arm pacer, who has represented England in five T20Is, and two ODIs. He has also registered eight T20I wickets in his career.
Luke Wood joins MI for ₹50 lakhs
The 28-year-old made his international debut in 2022 and his first-class debut in 2014. He has had plenty of experience in franchise cricket, having represented Trent Rockets at The Hundred. Meanwhile, in BPL 2022-23, he represented Sylhet Strikers, and was a key figure in their run to the final, which they eventually lost. Wood will join MI for ₹50 lakhs.
Big blow for Hardik Pandya and Co.
Behrendorff’s absence will be a big blow for MI, who are also dealing with Suryakumar Yadav’s injury. Giving an update on the situation, MI head coach Mark Boucher said, “We are awaiting updates on Suryakumar from the BCCI. We have always been under a cloud of fitness issues but we have a world-class medical team. We may lose one or two in terms of fitness but we have to move on as is sport.”
The India batter was last in action in the third T20I against South Africa, and hasn’t been in competitive cricket since then. MI begin their IPL 2024 campaign against Gujarat Titans on Sunday, in Ahmedabad.
IPL 2024 will also see Hardik Pandya return to MI after two glorious seasons wit GT. He has also replaced Rohit Sharma as MI skipper and hasn’t been in acton since his injury at the 2023 World Cup.
Speaking in the pre-season press conference, he said, “My injury in the World Cup was a freak injury. It had nothing to do with my past injuries and it had nothing to do with my fitness. It was just I tried to stop the ball and twisted my ankle. I could have been back in one and a half months. But when I got injured my injury from Day 1 showed that I would be out of the World Cup. Playing for India has always been special. We pushed 10 days we knew it was a difficult uphill task to reach and kind of be fit for the semi-final or final. When we pushed I kind of triggered my injury more and my injury became a little longer.”
