RCB sign Wayne Parnell as a replacement for Reece Topley for the ongoing season of IPL 2023

Royal Challengers Bangalore have signed Wayne Parnell as the replacement for Reece Topley for the ongoing season of the Indian Premier League. Topley has been ruled out of the tournament after suffering a shoulder injury in a match against Mumbai Indians, while Parnell is likely to join the RCB squad later this week.

Topley was bought by RCB for INR 1.9 crore in the 2023 auction. The England pacer took 2 wickets in the first match against MI at the M. Chinnaswamy, before sustaining an injury while trying to stop a boundary in the short fine-leg region.

While Warnell has been picked as the replacement after getting unsold in the auction, the 33-year-old bowling all-rounder from South Africa has appeared in 26 IPL games playing for Pune Warriors and Delhi Capitals previously, taking 26 wickets at an average of 26.96.

‘We tried our best to keep him (Topley) here…’ – Sanjay Bangar

RCB head coach Sanjay Bangar confirmed Topley’s departure adding that Wanindu Hasaranga will be joining the squad on April 10th. Bangar also mentioned that the management tried hard to keep Topley in the squad but he had to leave for further treatment.

“Reece, unfortunately, had to go back home because he has been ruled out of the tournament. We tried our best to keep him here, but the treatment and the experts suggest that he is going to be out of action for some time. Hasaranga will arrive for us on the 10th, so depending on the time of his arrival and how he copes with the long flight from New Zealand is something we’ll have to think about,” said Bangar as quoted by Sportskeeda.

“But in the meantime, Karn has taken his chances really well, so that’s another headache for us – but it’s a good headache. Josh is about to arrive on the 14th. He’ll have a couple of sessions with us and should be ready to go, hopefully, by the 17th,” the RCB coach further added.

RCB have played two matches so far in the ongoing season of IPL. They registered a convincing victory against MI by 8 wickets but went on to lose by 81 runs to Kolkata Knight Riders at the Eden Gardens on Thursday. RCB will now take on Lucknow Super Giants on April 10 at the Chinnaswamy stadium.