Veteran England fast bowler David Willey will miss the start of the Indian Premier League (IPL 2024) season for Lucknow Super Giants after the news was confirmed on Wednesday (Mar 20).

Willey, part of the LSG squad as one of the foreign players will be away for personal reasons. The news was confirmed by head coach Justin Langer with no replacement being announced as Willey is expected to return to India after a short break. Willey to miss start of IPL 2024 "With Mark Wood pulling out of the tournament and also David Willey won't be coming now either, that means we lack some experience," Langer said when asked about LSG's pace attack. "But what I've also seen in the last couple of days is that we have enormous talent. Some of our guys have had some injuries but they all look very fit at the moment. "They look fit and healthy and they're very hungry, so we'll just have to manage them well so that we can get them through and work through the whole tournament, not just the start of the tournament. We've got one overseas player up our sleeve if required, where we might be able to add some experience." Willey on Monday played in the Pakistan Super League (PSL) final for Multan Sultan where he ended on the losing side. Multan lost the final by two wickets to Islamabad United with Willey being part of the majority of the campaign. His involvement in several franchise competitions saw him stay away from his family. Willey was signed for $240,000 (INR 2 crore) by LSG during the auction and has previously played for Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) in the past. With him only likely to miss some part of the season there is no replacement announced by the franchise. Earlier, Harry Brook opted to miss the IPL due to personal reasons. Police treating tennis star Aryna Sabalenka boyfriend Konstantin Koltsov's death as 'apparent suicide' LSG will start their IPL campaign on Sunday (Mar 24) against Rajasthan Royals and will look to build on their impressive two campaigns in the IPL.

Lucknow Super Giants Squad

Amit Mishra, Arshin Kulkarni, Ashton Turner, Ayush Badoni, David Willey, Deepak Hooda, Devdutt Padikkal, K Gowtham, K L Rahul (C), Krunal Pandya, Kyle Mayers, M Siddharth, Marcus Stoinis, Mayank Yadav, Mohd. Arshad Khan, Mohsin Khan, Naveen-ul-Haq, Nicholas Pooran, Prerak Mankad, Quinton de Kock, Ravi Bishnoi, Shamar Joseph, Shivam Mavi, Yash Thakur, Yudhvir Singh ​