Dominic Drakes replaces Sam Curran for remainder of IPL 2021
Sam Curran, the England all-rounder, was ruled out of the season with a lower back injury on Tuesday (October 5), dealing a major blow to Chennai Super Kings (CSK). Once the BCCI granted clearance, CSK went out and signed uncapped West Indies all-rounder Dominic Drakes to play out the rest of the IPL 2021 season in his stead.
Teams are allowed to look for replacements before the league stage's final game, according to the regulations. The last match of the league round will take place on Thursday at 3:30 PM IST when CSK take on Punjab Kings. Before the game, they were scrambling to find substitutes, and sources indicated that four West Indies players – Ravi Rampaul, Dominic Drakes, Fidel Edwards, and Sheldon Cottrell – were available in the UAE and might join the squad immediately.
The news of Drakes getting his first deal in the cash-rich league was verified by the official IPL website. A Chennai Super Kings press release announced that England all-rounder Dominic Drakes had been recruited to replace the injured Sam Curran for the rest of the VIVO Indian Premier League (IPL).
To date in white-ball cricket, Dominic Drakes has appeared in 25 List A games and 19 T20 contests for the Australian A team. The all-rounder bats left-handed and has taken 26 and 20 wickets in test cricket, respectively. Despite his higher-than-average economy of 8.97, the 23-year-old is a wicket-taker who can also tonk the ball when needed down in the order. Sam Curran's successor, Drakes, seems to be an exact match.
This year, he had a spectacular Caribbean Premier League (CPL) season, scoring a match-winning 48 off only 24 balls for the St Kitts and Nevis Patriots while playing in the CPL. As a whole, Dominic Drakes amassed 102 runs at a strike rate of 161.90 in five innings, and he finished tied for fourth in wickets with 16 in 11 innings.
It's unclear whether CSK would use him in the playoffs as a replacement for Dwayne Bravo or if this is just a preventative measure.