CSK CEO Confirms Deepak Chahar’s Return

Chennai Super Kings pacer Deepak Chahar has cleared all the mandatory tests from the franchise and Board of Control for Cricket in India and will train with the squad from Friday, CSK CEO Kasi Viswanathan has said.

“Deepak has all the necessary clearance from the CSK and BCCI side and will start training from today,” Viswanathan was quoted as saying by ANI.

Chahar Tested Positive Earlier

Chahar was one of the two players in the squad, apart from 11 other members of the touring party, to test positive for COVID-19 after arriving in UAE. The positive tests extended CSK’s quarantine period. Even when the rest of the team tested negative and returned to train last Friday, Chahar had to stay indoors to complete his quarantine period and recover completely.

Deepak Lokendrasingh Chahar is an Indian cricketer. He is a right hand medium-pace bowler and lower-order batsman, who plays for Rajasthan in domestic cricket and Chennai Super Kings in the Indian Premier League. He became the first Indian male cricketer to take a hat-trick in a Twenty20 International.

Having completed that now, Chahar will look to make himself fully fit and available for the first match against Mumbai Indians on September 19.

Meanwhile, there were reports that CSK could sign Dawid Malan, England’s batsman and the No. 1 ranked T20I batsman, as a replacement for Suresh Raina. Raina had earlier left the team and flew back home for personal reasons.

Viswanathan, though, quashed the rumours saying CSK do not have a slot for a foreign player.

“This is news to me as well because our quota of foreign players is already full. So I don’t know how we can have another foreigner in the squad,” he explained.

Harbhajan Will Not Be Playing

CSK also are without the services of Harbhajan Singh who too is missing the tournament for personal reasons.

Harbhajan Singh Plaha, commonly known as Harbhajan or simply Bhajji or Bhajju Pa, is an Indian international cricketer, who plays all forms of the game cricket. A specialist spin bowler, he has the second-highest number of Test wickets by an off spinner, behind Sri Lanka’s Muttiah Muralitharan.

In potentially more troubling news, CSK’s Dwayne Bravo did not bowl in the final of the Caribbean Premier League, which his side Trinbago Knight Riders won. Bravo was on the field through the 20 overs and was said to have been nursing a slight niggle on the knee.