Picture Credit: Twitter
The 15th edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) is underway and so is some enthralling cricketing action. Ten teams are battling it out for the last four spots. The Monday evening is seeing defending champions Chennai Super Kings (CSK) take on Punjab Kings (PBKS) at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai.
CSK captain Ravindra Jadeja opted to bowl after winning the toss. Punjab Kings scored 187/4 in their 20 overs courtesy of Shikhar Dhawan's unbeaten 88. The Punjab bowlers started well as they got rid of Robin Uthappa early in the innings. Everything looked normal until Rishi Dhawan came to bowl.
After Kagiso Rabada and Sandeep Sharma bowled the first four overs in the powerplay, Mayank Agarwal called Rishi to try his hand in the fifth over. But the strange thing to notice about Dhawan was that he was bowling with a face mask on. The Punjab Kings pacer was seen wearing a transparent mask that covered his nose and upper face area.
Watch the video here:
Why was Dhawan wearing this helmet?
After seeing the Punjab pacer with this unique helmet on, everyone wondered for the reason behind it. While there was no official information available, some revealed that Dhawan was wearing this helmet to protect his nose from getting hit. Reportedly, Dhawan had undergone a nose surgery recently and he did not want to risk exposing it to the ball and thus came to bowl with this unique helmet.
Coming to Dhawan's performance with the ball in the match, the Himachal Pradesh all-arounder bowled tight lines in his first three overs and also took the important wicket of Shivam Dube. Dhawan cleaned Dube with a length delivery. In his first three overs, Dhawan only conceded 24 runs.