Chennai Super Kings batsman Ruturaj Gaikwad will miss the IPL curtain-raiser against Mumbai Indians.
The hard-hitting 23-year-old is still in quarantine after testing positive for Covid-19.
It means he will miss the opener against Mumbai on September 19 and will also be a doubt for his team’s second game against Rajasthan Royals on September 22.
CSK are already having to deal without the absent Suresh Raina and Harbhajan Singh for this year’s tournament due to personal reasons.
Gaikwad was one of the first to test positive last month along with 11 other members of the CSK contingent in the UAE.
The middle-order batsman has remained in quarantine for the past two weeks and won’t be able to leave and compete in IPL 2020 until he tests negative.
Chennai CEO, K.S. Viswanathan said: “The recovery period cannot be the same for everybody. Ruturaj has to test negative on successive days. And he has to pass the cardiovascular tests conducted by the BCCI.
“I have been speaking to Ruturaj over the phone every day. He is all right and is asymptomatic.”
However, CSK have been boosted ahead of the first game after pace bowler Deepak Chahar returned to training after previous testing positive himself.
Isolation for Overseas Stars
Chennai’s Australian bowler Josh Hazlewood will head straight to the UAE after playing for his country in the limited-overs series against England.
He will have to undergo a six-day quarantine period before he can join his team-mates.
That is the same for others heading to the UAE, including Rajasthan’s Steve Smith and Hyderabad’s David Warner. There will be no leniency given for the fact that the Australian side have been in a bio-secure bubble in England.
“We are hearing – although it’s not confirmed yet – that they will also have to self-isolate in their rooms for six days and produce negative tests on the first, third and sixth days before they can join us,” said Chennai Super Kings bowling consultant Eric Simons.
“We had hoped that they could all move from their current bio-secure bubbles into ours but it seems likely that there will be no leniency, which is understandable.
“Apart from our brilliant Indian players, led by the ageless MS Dhoni, we do have Shane Watson, Faf du Plessis and Lungi Ngidi in full training so there’s no shortage of talent.”
