#IPL2017: Delhi Daredevils batsman Shreyas Iyer ruled out of first few matches due to chicken pox

Delhi Daredevils have already lost Quinton de Kock and JP Duminy for the entire tournament, while Sri Lankan all-rounder Angelo Mathews will miss majority of the season due to a hamstring injury.

New Delhi: While the eight teams are sweating it out in the nets for the tenth edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL), Delhi Daredevils's think tank has plenty to ponder over as a result of injuries to several of their key batsmen.

In a fresh blow, rising Delhi batsman Shreyar Iyer has been ruled out of the initial few matches as he is down with chicken pox.

Quinton de Kock and JP Duminy are two key overseas players who were ruled out of the tenth edition much earlier. While the wicketkeeper batsman was ruled out due to an injury, Duminy pulled out of the tournament citing personal reasons. Angelo Mathews, another vital cog in the team, will be missing the action as he is yet to recover from a hamstring injury.

Mathews is not a part of the Sri Lankan T20 side that will host Bangladesh in a two-match T20 series starting April 4 in Colombo.

SLC is reluctant to release Mathews unless he has fully recovered because they would like him to be available for the Champions Trophy in the UK in June.

These are testing times for Rahul Dravid, along with the other think tank, who would have been depending a lot on the overseas players to change their fortunes this year.

"It is obviously a big blow when you lose big players like JP Duminy and Quinton De Kock. If these things happen before the auction, then it is easier because you can plan better. But then this is how it goes and you cannot help it. We do have talented players like Sam Billings and hopefully they can go up and perform," Dravid told PTI during an interaction at Delhi Daredevils' academy ground.

While Dravid is now banking on experienced international all-rounder Corey Anderson to play a major role, he admitted that De Kock is a bigger loss considering he was built into a player to give the team momentum at the top of the order.

"Quinton is a big loss because he played so many games for us and was one of our main batsmen. We had built him up for this season, but this is how life is and you cannot do much about it," the chief coach added.