Maybe towards the end of this week, I’ll fly out to India and get going again – Liam Livingstone

England batter Liam Livingstone is hoping to get fitness clearance from the ECB by the weekend so he may play in the Indian Premier League, since suffering a knee injury on his Test debut in Pakistan four months ago, Livingstone has not participated in any competitive cricket.

England batter Liam Livingstone is hoping to get fitness clearance from the ECB by the weekend so he may play in the Indian Premier League. Since suffering a knee injury on his Test debut in Pakistan four months ago, Livingstone has not participated in any competitive cricket. 

He also suffered an ankle injury last year that flared up in recent weeks, making recovery more difficult. He will certainly miss Punjab Kings’ third game of the season on April 9 against Sunrisers Hyderabad. On April 13, they play their fourth game at home.

“(I’m) getting there, finally,” Livingstone said on LancsTV’s coverage of Lancashire’s opening County Championship fixture against Surrey.

“It’s been a long road: three or four days a week at the gym over the last three or four months. Maybe towards the end of this week or the start of next week, I’ll fly out to India and get going again.

“Feeling much better. I had some injections midway through last week. It’s settled it down a lot, finally been able to get outside and do some running and get back to proper cricket stuff. That’s probably been about four or five days now, so just trying to build back up to match fitness now.”

Livingstone had recovered from the ankle injury to play in the T20 World Cup which England won.

“I got over my ankle to play in the World Cup, and then my knee has been a bit of a niggle one. I finally sorted that out and my ankle flared up again. Hopefully, they’re both under control now and it’ll be nice to get back playing finally,”

he said.

“It’s been a difficult couple of months, but finally now I’m like a little kid wanting to get back to playing cricket again.

“Hopefully over the next couple of days, I’ll get the clearance to head out there. I’m really looking forward to getting back out, getting back playing, and hopefully over the next 48 hours or so I’ll finally get that,”

he added.

For Punjab Kings, who retained Livingstone on a deal for Rs. 11.50 crore ahead of the auction last year, he is a crucial player. He scored 437 runs last season at a strike rate of 182.08.