Mukesh Choudhary, who impressed all and sundry in the last season’s Indian Premier League, recovering from a back injury at the National Cricket Academy in Bengaluru and is out of the first few matches of the IPL 2023. Whether he would be able to join the squad in the later stages depend on his fitness, and that surely has come as a blow to Chennai Super Kings, who have already lost Kyle Jamieson to injury. 

The Sri Lankan duo of Maheesh Theekshana and Matheesha Pathirana will also not be a part of the squad for the first week, as they are on national duty in New Zealand at the moment and will link up with their squad after the series concludes on April 8.

Choudhary’s absence will be a big spanner in the works for Chennai Super Kings, who will be without a left-arm seamer in their squad. The Maharashtra pacer was one of the biggest positives for CSK last season, as he picked 16 wickets in 13 games. That performamce helped him to the Indian squad, even though he didn’t play a match.

In the absence of Choudhary, CSK will rely on Delhi’s Simranjeet Singh and Mumbai’s Tushar Deshpande as far as the pace bowling stock is concerned. With Deepak Chahar recently recovering from injury, CSK will sigh of relief but Chahar’s match fitness is yet to be ascertained.