Indian cricketer Suresh Raina, who rejoined the Chennai Super Kings squad ahead of the start of the 2018 Indian Premier League season, has been ruled out of the next two matches with a calf injury. CSK have won the opening two fixtures of IPL season 11, with all of them being nail-biters. With Raina now out from the next two matches against Kings XI Punjab and Rajasthan Royals, it remains to be seen how the Chennai outfit overcome his absence.
The news comes Kedar Jadhav had was ruled out of the entire season with a hamstring injury. It has also been learnt that Raina "suffered a calf injury" during their last encounter against Kolkata Knight Riders at the MA Chidambaram Stadium on Tuesday. Raina, who has failed to fire in the first two matches for CSK, would likely get Murali Vijay open the innings and get Ambati Rayudu down the order even though the latter has been a good new-ball striker in the IPL.
Faf du Plessis, the South Africa skipper, who is recovering from a finger injury and side strain, is likely to be drafted in the playing XI, while Dhruv Shorey, Kshitiz Sharma, N Jagadeesan and David Willey are some of the options for the next match against Punjab.
Chennai have had the best start to the new season, although a littler nervy one. After Dwayne Bravo's 30-ball 68 inspired them to a one-wicket win versus Mumbai, Sam Billings' quick-fire fifty helped the side to chase down a massive target of 203 against Kolkata most recently.
CSK Squad: MS Dhoni, Ravindra Jadeja, Suresh Raina, David Willey, Dwayne Bravo. Karn Sharma, Shane Watson, Shardul Thakur, Ambati Rayudu, Murali Vijay, Harbhajan Singh, Faf Du Plessis, Mark Wood, Sam Billings, Imran Tahir, Deepak Chahar, Mitchell Santner, Lungisani Ngidi, Asif K M, N Jagadeesan, Kanishk Seth, Monu Singh, Dhruv Shorey, Kshitiz Sharma, Chaitanya Bishnoi