On Friday, Lucknow Super Giants’ IPL 2023 campaign suffered a significant setback when their captain, KL Rahul, was forced to withdraw from the remainder of the tournament due to an injury he sustained in a match against Royal Challengers Bangalore. LSG later around the same time declared his substitution, a previous RCB star, Karun Nair. It was made public on Twitter when LSG shared the popular “Dear Cricket” tweet from the veteran India player.

LSG on Friday revealed that “further tests and scans have unfortunately confirmed a significant tear to Rahul’s tendon which will require surgery.” He was even ruled out of the World Test Championship final against Australia next month at The Oval because of the injury.

Later that same day, they shared Nair’s viral December tweet announcing his selection as Rahul’s season-long replacement. India’s second triple centurion in Test cricket, Nair, had posted on Twitter: After being disqualified from the Ranji Trophy, “Dear Cricket, give me one more chance”

👀💙✨ pic.twitter.com/z6L4Zp5SPC

— Lucknow Super Giants (@LucknowIPL) May 5, 2023

Karun Nair will be playing in his 10th IPL season, in which he has made 76 appearances and scored 1496 runs, including 10 fifties, for four teams

After becoming well known in domestic cricket during 2013, he was picked by the RCB franchise where he played two seasons prior to moving to Rajasthan Royals in 2014. After that, in 2016 and 2017, he played for Delhi Daredevils, which are now known as Delhi Capitals, before switching to the Punjab franchise. He had gotten back to Rajasthan in 2022, however showed up to score only 16 runs prior to being released by the franchise.

The India star has been signed by LSG for INR 50 lakhs.

With five wins in ten matches, LSG currently sits second in the points table with 11 points. After their home match against Chennai Super Kings was postponed due to rain, they lost by one point. On May 7, they will take on the defending champions and reigning champions, the Gujarat Titans, in Ahmedabad.