The Chennai Super Kings have announced the signing of Akash Madhwal as the replacement of Ayush Mhatre, who was ruled out due to a hamstring injury. The CSK fans will be delighted with the signing as Madhwal is a proven talent who has experience playing for Mumbai Indians and Rajasthan Royals as well. Their pace bowling unit will benefit significantly from the inclusion of Madhwal as they had lost Khaleel Ahmed earlier on due to an injury. It definitely isn’t a like-for-like replacement as they may be looking to tighten their bowling unit and play Urvil Patel at the top.

Today they will face a major test in the form of Mumbai Indians as they are coming off a solid victory against the Gujarat Titans and the Mumbai players have shown flickers of hope. The Chennai Super Kings on the other hand have been coping up with injury concerns as two of their frontline players have been ruled out of the season. It will be interesting to see how CSK shape up today in the absence of Ayush Mhatre and there are also reports around the availability of MS Dhoni.

Bowling boost for Chennai as MS Dhoni’s availability and batting reshuffle remain key talking points

The injury of Ayush Mhatre would significantly affect the batting unit of the Chennai Super Kings. He was one of their most consistent players along with Sarfaraz Khan and his shoes will be difficult to fill. Sanju Samson had a couple of good knocks including a century but he has been inconsistent in putting up runs on the board. The return of Dewald Brevis was widely anticipated but he has failed to make an impression in the tournament. The middle order has been average as Shivam Dube has not managed to get plenty of runs under his belt as well.

The addition of Akash Madhwal would indeed tighten their bowling unit as he can bowl excellent yorkers at the death. He has proven his capabilities in executing his plans at the death and would undoubtedly be a timely addition to their squad. They will also be hopeful that Urvil Patel can tune his explosive batting style to fetch results for the side. They will need their star players including their captain Ruturaj Gaikwad to find some sort of form. Their bowling unit needs to be complemented by their batting unit, if they are to charge for a spot in the playoffs.

The Chennai Super Kings will take on the Mumbai Indians at the Wankhede Stadium today, but the fans will be anxious to know if MS Dhoni will feature. For both teams it is a very important game as they haven’t had the best of starts and both teams are trying to fight back into the race for the playoffs.