Former Indian cricketer Suresh Raina feels that Chennai Super Kings leading pacer Deepak Chahar might miss out 4- 5 games for the four-time champions as he suffered a hamstring injury during their match against arch-rivals Mumbai Indians on Saturday.
The 30-year-old Indian pacer, who missed out the entire season last year, suffered an injury during the 1st over against Mumbai Indians, which ruled him out of the match.
“It seems Deepak will be out for 4-5 games. It looks like he has again sustained a hamstring injury and looked in discomfort. All the other IPL venues are far off from Chennai and there will be a lot of traveling involved,” Suresh Raina said.
Earlier speaking to CSK TV, Chennai Super Kings pacer Deepak Chahar hoped to play the entire season without injury for the four-time champions in the 16th edition of the Indian Premier League. Chahar was signed by CSK for Rs 14 crore in the IPL 2022 mega auctions last year, but the star bowler suffered an injury that ruled him out of the 2022 season.
Speaking on the post-match press conference about Chennai Super Kings’ game plan after losing out to Deepak Chahar on the very first over. MS Dhoni lauded their spinner and debutant Sisanda Magala for stepping up in his first game for the franchise.
“Feels good. Not to forget we lost Deepak in the first over. He’s our new ball bowler and Magala playing his first match. The good thing is spinners bowled well. It was a bit two-paced and after seven overs, it started turning, The spinners and the fast bowlers came back well. Magala was good and so was Pretorius,” MS Dhoni said.
Deepak Chahar had a quiet season so far as he went wicketless for Chennai Super Kings in both encounters against Gujarat Titans and Lucknow Super Giants but bowled brilliantly to concede only 29 runs from 4 overs against Gujarat. He went for 55 runs in the 4 overs against Lucknow with Kyle Mayers taking him to the cleaners.
Shikhar Dhawan Played An Impactful Role – Suresh Raina
Suresh Raina heaped a praise on Shikhar Dhawan for his exceptional performance against Rajasthan Royals in their previous encounter and added that he always plays an impactful role for the teams and lauded the Punjab Kings skipper for his brilliantly constructing his innings.
“He was performing the anchor’s role. Much is made about his strike rate but he played an impactful role. Look at the fact that he’s made 450 runs in 7 consecutive TATA IPL seasons. He knew that when the dew falls, the pace becomes easier,” Suresh Raina said.
Punjab Kings will take on Sunrisers Hyderabad on their third match of the league stage and Shikhar Dhawan-led side will look to register a hat-trick win in the league against the 2016 champions Sunrisers Hyderabad.