Defending champions Chennai Super Kings (CSK) have got a major boost ahead of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024 opener. The Ruturaj Gaikwad-led side’s death overs speciallist Matheesha Pathirana has been declared fit by his manager Amila Kalugalage.
"The answer to 'Where's Pathirana'. He is fit and ready to throw Thunder balls. Be ready. Finally a together with the Legend," Kalugalage wrote on March 22.
During Sri Lanka's ODI series against Bangladesh, Pathirana had a Grade 1 hamstring tear. He was ruled out for the rest of the series.
Pathirana is likely to join CSK camp after getting a clearance from Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC). Earlier, the 21-year-old pacer was expected to miss the first few games of IPL 2024.
In the previous edition, he took 19 wickets from 12 games at an average of 19.53. His economy rate was 8.01 runs per over despite being CSK's go-to bowler in death overs. He played a major role in CSK’s fifth title win.
CSK’s other death overs speciallist
In Pathirana’s absence, Bangladesh’s left-arm pacer Mustafizur Rahman is likely to be CSK’s death overs speciallist. Rahman was picked for his base price of Rs 2 crore. Rahman also got an injury scare when he was stretchered off the field in the third ODI of the series against Sri Lanka. However, he recovered and joined the CSK camp on March 20.
Gaikwad’s IPL captaincy debut
The official announcement of MS Dhoni handing over CSK captaincy to Gaikwad came on the eve of the IPL 2024 opener. Gaikwad who helped India win a historic gold at the Hangzhou Asian Games 2023 will make his IPL captaincy debut against Faf du Plessis-led Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) at MA Chidambaram Stadium, Chennai.
CSK IPL 2024 squad:
MS Dhoni, Ruturaj Gaikwad (c), Moeen Ali, Deepak Chahar, Devon Conway, Tushar Deshpande, Shivam Dube, Rajvardhan Hangargekar, Ravindra Jadeja, Ajay Mandal, Mukesh Choudhary, Matheesha Pathirana, Ajinkya Rahane, Shaik Rasheed, Mitchell Santner, Simarjeet Singh, Nishant Sindhu, Prashant Solanki, Maheesh Theekshana, Rachin Ravindra, Shardul Thakur, Daryl Mitchell, Sameer Rizvi, Mustafizur Rahman, Avanish Rao Aravelly.
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