Vijay and du Plessis injured ahead of CSK vs KKR

In spite of winning their opening match against Mumbai Indians, CSK have a lot of issues ahead of their second match against KKR. There are injuries galore at Chennai, as three major players may be not be available for selection tomorrow.

Chennai Super Kings (CSK) got a shock when Kedar Jadhav ruled out of the IPL with a grade 2 hamstring injury. Kedav Jadhav injured himself during the league opener against Mumbai Indians (MI) on Saturday. He was retired hurt but came at the last and scored the winning runs in the last over to seal the game for his team.

Jadhav was bought by the franchise for 7.80 crores in January action. His exclusion from the tournament is a big blow for CSK it will upset the balance of the team and he was also available as a part-time bowler when required.

The franchise is yet to name the replacement and this is the second injury that the team has suffered. Earlier the New Zealand’s Mitchell Santner was ruled out of IPL due to a knee injury.

“Unfortunately for us, Kedhar Jadhav has been ruled out for the rest of the tournament,” CSK’s batting coach Michael Hussey said.

He added, “His hamstring scan did not come back so good. I believe it is a Grade 2 tear and he is going to be out for some period of time. We haven’t picked a replacement as yet but we will go through the process. It is a big loss for us because he is obviously a very good player and a key player in that middle order. There are big shoes to fill for that little man I guess.”

CSK have further injury worries as Faf du Plessis is currently battling a side strain, while Murali Vijay is recovering after being hit in the ribs during a practice session. “I believe Faf is not in full training at the moment. He’s recovering from a slight side strain and obviously, he’s got a small fracture in one of his fingers. But he’s going to be ramping his training up a lot in the next seven days and is hopeful to be available for the next against Mohali (Kings XI),” Hussey said.

“From what I understand, Murali Vijay got a bit of a knock in the first few days of his training in his ribs. He’s been quite sore actually and slowly working his way back to full fitness. He has been training well though and hitting the ball nicely. There’s always 50-50 calls that can go either way and sometimes it’s just the gut feel of the captain and the coach of which way they want to go.” said Hussey before signing off.