Defending champions Chennai Super Kings (CSK) will kickstart the 2024 season of the Indian Premier League (IPL) next week in Bengaluru against home side Royal Challengers Bangalore. However, before the start of the campaign, CSK have incurred a second injury blow, losing another of their key player from their victorious title run in 2023.
Sri Lanka fast bowler Matheesha Pathirana suffered a hamstring injury during the T20I series against Bangladesh. He had picked up the injury during the second match of the series at Sylhet on March 6 and left the field without completing his bowling spell.
A report in Times of India revealed that Pathirana could be out of action for at least four to five weeks, implying that he will miss the entire duration of the first leg of the IPL 2024 season. “We have to talk to SLC to know when he will be available. He is one of our premier bowlers, but these things happen,” a senior CSK official told the newspaper.
Pathirana, a new-gen version of Lasith Malinga, had played a key role in CSK lifting the trophy for the fifth time in IPL history. He was picked by CSK for the 2022 season after Adam Milne was ruled out of the season with an injury. The right-arm fast bowler managed only two appearances for the franchise in his debut season, but played 12 matches last season where he picked 19 wickets at an economy rate of 8.01.
“People who don’t have very clean [conventional] action, batsmen find it difficult to pick them – in a format like this, where you have to go after the bowler, it makes it slightly difficult,” CSK captain MS Dhoni said after Pathirana recorded his best IPL figure of 3 for 15 against Mumbai Indians. “That is just on the action part, we are not talking about the pace that he bowls [at], the variations he has and the consistency he has got. All of it makes him special. What is important is to keep an eye on how much cricket he is playing.”
With Pathirana likely to miss out, Chennai will be resting their hopes on Bangladesh fast bowler Mustafizur Rahman, whose cutters will be handy on the sluggish Chepauk track.
Earlier, CSK opener Devon Conway suffered an injury blow during a T20I game for New Zealand against Australia. Having sustained a finger injury, Conway is likely to miss the first half of the IPL 2024 tournament as well.
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