Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) have named New Zealand pacer Matt Henry as David Willey’s replacement for IPL 2024 after the England pace-bowling all-rounder pulled out of this year’s tournament.

Henry was picked at his base price of INR 1.25 crore as a replacement for England pace-bowling all-rounder David Willey, who withdrew from the ongoing season, citing personal reasons.

Willey out of IPL

Earlier, LSG head coach Justin Langer confirmed that Willey would miss the start of the IPL, having spent two months representing Abu Dhabi in the ILT20 and Multan Sultans in the recently concluded PSL 2024. However, as per the latest updates, he has pulled out of the entire season.

Willey is the second Englishman to be unavailable for LSG: earlier, Mark Wood had pulled out of the entire season to manage his workload ahead of the T20I World Cup in June. Lucknow named Shamar Joseph as Wood’s replacement.

Henry called up

Henry has represented New Zealand in 25 Tests, 82 ODIs and 17 T20Is, picking up 95, 141 and 20 wickets, respectively. In the IPL, he has been a part of Punjab Kings and Chennai Super Kings and has played two matches so far.

Henry has been in terrific form lately. With 17 scalps at 15.70, including a 7-67, he finished as the highest wicket-taker in the home Test series against Australia.

LSG didn’t have the likeliest of starts to their campaign. They lost against Rajasthan Royals in their season opener on March 24 in Jaipur. An unbeaten 52-ball 82 from Sanju Samson powered RR to 193-4. Chasing the target, the tourists fell short by 20 runs as a 44-ball 58 from skipper KL Rahul went in vain.

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