Glenn Phillips, who picked up a groin injury while fielding in Gujarat Titans' (GT) game against Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) in Hyderabad on April 6, has been ruled out of the remainder of IPL 2025. An IPL statement said that Phillips has "returned to New Zealand". GT, the table-toppers at this stage with four wins from five games, haven't named a replacement for Phillips yet.
Phillips, who didn't get into GT's starting line-up even once during his stay with the team, came on as a substitute fielder after the fifth over of the SRH innings but had to limp off within minutes. He fielded the fourth ball of that over, bowled by Prasidh Krishna, and hurled a throw to the wicketkeeper's end as Ishan Kishan and Nitish Kumar Reddy stole a quick single. He went down clutching his groin straightaway. "Looks like he might have pulled his groin while getting that throw away," we noted on our live ball-by-ball commentary.
He hobbled off before the next delivery, helped along by some of the others from the GT camp.
GT had earlier lost the services of Kagiso Rabada, on April 3, when he left home "to deal with an important personal matter". There is no clarity on when, and if, he would be returning. GT hadn't named a replacement for Rabada either.
Only seven overseas players had been acquired by GT for the season, and now they are down to five. Jos Buttler, Rashid Khan and Sherfane Rutherford have played all their games so far. They also have Karim Janat, the Afghanistan allrounder, and Gerald Coetzee, the South Africa quick bowler, in their ranks. Coetzee, though, is on his way back from an injury, which put him out of both the SA20 and Champions Trophy earlier this year.