Sam Curran likely to miss entire IPL 2026 season due to injury; Lockie Ferguson to miss initial phase

Rajasthan Royals (RR) have suffered a blow as their new recruit Sam Curran is set to miss IPL 2026 entirely. The England all-rounder is reportedly suffering from a groin injury, however it is not yet clear when and how the southpaw picked it up.

Curran was part of the England T20 World Cup squad which bowed out in the semi-final. As a matter of fact, it was the 27-year-old's most recent competitive match. Meanwhile, whether RR would sign a replacement player or not is not known as of now.

Curran, along with Ravindra Jadeja, was traded to RR by his former franchise Chennai Super Kings (CSK) in exchange for Sanju Samson. RR is the third franchise that the Englishman has signed up for with Punjab Kings (PBKS) and CSK being the others in the past.

Curran saw a huge drop in his value ahead of IPL 2025 though. The all-rounder was picked up by PBKS again in 2023 for INR 185 million, but suffered a devaluation to INR 24 million when he was bought by CSK for the 2025 season.

Lockie Ferguson to miss initial phase

On the other hand, PBKS pacer Lockie Ferguson has confirmed that he would miss the initial phase of the season at the very least and would join the franchise in the latter half. The New Zealander intends to spend time with his family after becoming a father recently.

Ferguson had made a dash to New Zealand during the T20 World Cup for the same purpose. The 34-year-old missed the team's last league match against Canada before returning for the Super Eights fixtures in Sri Lanka. The right-arm fast bowler is currently part of the Kiwi squad which is competing against the Proteas in a T20I series at home. After the third match on March 20 though, Ferguson will be taking a long break before participating in the IPL next.

"Just had a wee son, trying to spend as much time as I can at home and help the wife out. I'll have a few weeks off after this, before sort of heading to the later stages of the IPL and away for the winter.

"Cricket, in general, is on the up, which is amazing. Sometimes the hard part is selecting when to take a rest. So, picking this time, which I think is pretty fair, considering the wife was looking after the baby when I was in the World Cup. So, no, really looking forward to some time at home and then back into some cricket after that," said Ferguson as quoted by ESPNcricinfo.

The Kiwi also made it clear that he is very much committed to the national team despite not being on a central contract. Ferguson revealed that he is hungry to play for New Zealand and wants to do well in the next two ICC tournaments - ODI World Cup 2027 and T20 World Cup 2028.

"Looking forward to the next two World Cups, there's a great opportunity for our squad. I'm still keen at this stage for sure. Obviously, it's a few months and a few games away, but I'm working very hard to make sure I'm on the park and playing at high quality so that I can hopefully add value to that team," added Ferguson.

Meanwhile, RR begin their IPL 2026 campaign against CSK on March 30 while PBKS clash against Gujarat Titans the day after.