Chennai Super Kings have suffered yet another blow ahead of this year’s Indian Premier League as their veteran off-spinner Harbhajan Singh has decided to pull out of the entire competition, citing personal reasons. In the process, he became the second CSK player after Suresh Raina to decide against playing in the upcoming edition.
The off-spinner had also missed the pre-season camp in Chennai last month. Before leaving for UAE, CSK had a short camp from August 15 to 20. With the tournament to be played in spinner friendly conditions of UAE, missing a bowler like Harbhajan Singh will be a big blow for the three-time champions. The veteran spinner had joined CSK in 2018 after spending ten years with Mumbai Indians. In 2018, he helped CSK win their third title. Last year, he had picked up 16 wickets when the MS Dhoni-led side made it to the final where they lost to Mumbai Indians.
CSK still have a formidable spin department though. With the likes of Imran Tahir, Ravindra Jadeja, Mitchell Santner, Karn Sharma and the highly-rated Sai Kishore in their ranks, CSK have one of the most potent spin attacks in the tournament.
Last week, Suresh Raina had also pulled out of the competition despite travelling to UAE with the team. He returned to India and pulled out of IPL 2020 citing personal reasons. Missing Raina will be another blow for the IPL giants as the southpaw is their all-time leading run-scorer and has been their batting mainstay since the inaugural season in 2008.
Meanwhile, CSK will finally resume their training from Friday. While all the other seven teams started their preparation from last week itself, CSK had to extend their quarantine after 13 members including two players of their camp tested positive for COVID-19. Fortunately, no other player or member has tested positive in the latest tests and the team will finally hit the nets now.