Breaking! Mitchell Marsh ruled out of IPL 2024, DC sign Afghanistan all-rounder Gulbadin Naib as replacement

In what seems to be a big blow for the Delhi Capitals, the star all-rounder Mithcell Marsh has been ruled out of the remainder of the ongoing Indian Premier League 2024 due to an injury. He will have to fly back to Australia for further treatment ahead of the crucial ICC T20 World Cup 2024 for Australia.

Coming back to DC, they have replaced Marsh with the Afghanistan all-rounder Gulbadin Naib. It will be the maiden appearance for Gulbadin Naib in the Indian Premier League. Earlier, his compatriots including the likes of Rashid Khan, Mohammed Nabi, Noor Ahmed, and Rahmanullah Gurbaz are active there in the tournament for various franchises.

“Delhi Capitals have signed Afghanistan all-rounder Gulbadin Naib as a replacement for Mitchell Marsh for the remainder of the Tata Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024. Marsh has been ruled out of the tournament due to an injury,” reads the official statement from IPL in a media advisory.

“Naib has represented Afghanistan in 82 One-Day Internationals (ODIs) and 65 T20 Internationals (T20Is) so far. A right-handed batter and a medium pacer, this will be his first stint in the Tata IPL. Naib signs in for his reserve price of INR 50 lakhs,” the statement adds further.

Marsh's poor form continued in his IPL 2024 appearances

Speaking of Marsh’s performances for DC in the ongoing IPL 2024 so far, he played 4 matches and could score only 61 runs with the bat with a below-par average of 15.25. The OZ all-rounder also struggled with the ball as he could scalp only 1 wicket after bowling 8 overs in 2 matches, with an expensive economy rate of 12.88.

Delhi Capitals are currently in the sixth spot of the points table of the tournament, with 4 wins and 5 defeats in the 9 matches they have played so far. Rishabh Pant’s men recently defeated the Gujarat Titans by a narrow margin of 4 runs in the 40th match of the tournament at the Arun Jaitley Stadium in Delhi.