MUMBAI: Mumbai’s experienced India pacer Tushar Deshpande, who underwent an ankle operation on September 30 this year in London, is set to return to action in the second half of the Ranji Trophy, which is set to begin from January 23.
After an impressive outing in IPL-2024 for the Chennai Super Kings, the 29-year-old fast bowler, who missed the Duleep Trophy and the first six matches of the Mumbai’s Ranji Trophy campaign due to his ankle injury, should be back in action when the defending champions play Jammu & Kashmir in their seventh league match, at home from January 23.
Deshpande played a key role in Mumbai’s 43rd title-winning Ranji Trophy campaign in March, claiming 15 wickets in five matches, and played a couple of T20Is (took two wickets@27.50) for India during the Zimbabwe tour in July, just after the T20 World Cup.
“He is recovering well at the moment, undergoing rehab at the BCCI‘s Centre of Excellence in Bengaluru,” a source told TOI. Deshpande wasn’t amongst CSK’s retained players, but the high-profile franchise could use the Right to Match (RTM) card to retain him at the IPL auction in Jeddah on November 24 & 25, as the quick has done well for them for the past three years.
Just after his surgery on Sept 30, Deshpande took to his official Instagram account and posted: “This post comes as an update about my ankle surgery which was done yesterday and went very well. It is a great relief as I was dealing with it for quite a long time. I am very grateful to my family, friends and all my fans for the well wishes, love and trust they have shown towards me. Here on, I start my journey to recover better than before and come back stronger.”
