Mohammad Nabi was struck on the back of his neck by a Prasidh Krishna short ball in the game between SRH and KKR on Sunday in IPL 2021, raising concerns over the absence of a stem guard on his helmet.

The incident happened in the 16th over of the Sunrisers innings. Prasidh Krishna was getting spongy bounce off the surface and he bowled a quicker bumper that Nabi couldn’t quite evade. He was hit flush on the back side of his neck that was exposed without the neck guard.

The physio and players gathered around the Afghanistan all-rounder and checked on him, and while he recovered to play on, the focus shifted slightly to the stem guard or the additional layer of padding found on the back side of helmets these days.

Nabi was wearing the older helmet with no stem guard and the exposed region of the neck got hit on. Social media was, understandably, shaken by the incident and most reactions wondered why Nabi wasn’t wearing the padding on the helmet.

Where is the neck protection on Nabi’s helmet! That gave horrible flashbacks.

— Vinayakk (@vinayakkm) April 11, 2021

How’s Nabi wearing that old helmet. That was bad blow.

— viroot (@Imsahil_11) April 11, 2021

Oh no – Mohammad Nabi’s hit hard on the back of the neck by Prasidh Krishna, he’s not wearing the stem guard, and we’ll have a break while he’s assessed – if there’s any suspicion of concussion, he has to come off.#SRHvKKR🏏🧡💜#IPL2021#GCDoesIPL#GCFromHome

— Guerilla Cricket #GCFromHome (@guerillacricket) April 11, 2021

Oh boy Nabi.. Extremely risky to not have that helmet back guard… #SRHvKKR #IPL2021

— Jigarr Jain (@MeinTeraHero) April 11, 2021

Its very difficult to understand why batsmen like Nabi refuse to wear the neck guard attachment that can be fitted onto the helmet. Its high time its made mandatory. That blow looked dangerous!
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.#CricTalker #nabi #srhvskkr #srhvkkr #KKRvsSRH #kkrvsrh

— CricTalker (@CricTalker) April 11, 2021

Several others wondered why the back guard on helmets wasn’t mandatory yet and called for regulatory bodies to intervene and makes these compulsory.

Ouch!
Why Nabi not wearing Helmet with extra protection?
He looks ok forunately but could have been very dangerous

ICC/Boards/Leagues should have uniform policy for Helmet with Extra Protection

— Abdul Ghaffar (@GhaffarDawnNews) April 11, 2021

Why aren’t the neck guards mandatory for cricketing helmets? Nabi’s injury is scary. #SRHvsKKR #IPL2021

— Ganesh Ramachandran (@aLastWordFreak) April 11, 2021

@bhogleharsha @sanjaymanjrekar @BCCI backpadding on helmets should be made compulsory, very close call with nabi @SunRisers. Should not be taken lightly.

— sandip borse (@sandipab85) April 11, 2021

Its very difficult to understand why batsmen like Nabi refuse to wear the neck guard attachment that can be fitted onto the helmet. Its high time its made mandatory. That blow looked dangerous!
.
.#CricTalker #nabi #srhvskkr #srhvkkr #KKRvsSRH #kkrvsrh

— CricTalker (@CricTalker) April 11, 2021

Luckily, he was up on his feet soon and even smashed the next delivery for a boundary. Two balls later, though, he was dismissed.

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