The defending champions Chennai Super Kings (CSK) suffered a huge blow three weeks before the start of the 15th season of the Indian Premier League (IPL) as Deepak Chahar has been ruled out for almost half the season. While the absence of their star bowler is likely to hit their plans for the tournament, former India all-rounder Irfan Pathan feels that CSK have a “fantastic young talent” that has the ability to replace Chahar until his return.
Rajvardhan Hangargekar’s quick seam-bowling prowess and lower-order hitting skill in the U-19 World Cup 2022 earned him an INR 1.5 crore deal at the mega auction last month in Bengaluru.
Taking on Star Sports show ‘Game Plan’, Pathan hailed the youngster’s ability and admitted that while he would have been worried about him had he been in some other franchise, but in CSK, they have a leader in MS Dhoni to guide him.
“Shardul Thakur isn’t there as well so you need to make sure that you find a replacement. They have one guy who is young, is raw – Hangargekar. You know he is a fantastic young talent. If a young guy comes into other team I might be bit more worried but they have MS Dhoni as their leader, their captain behind the stumps and that makes things a lot easier for the younger guys. So I feel they nearly found some sort of replacement,” he said.
Chahar sustained a right quadriceps injury which he had incurred during the third T20I match against West Indies in Kolkata earlier this month and is likely to miss the tournament until mid-April. His absence will come as a huge blow for CSK given his prowess with the new ball. Since 2019, Chahar has picked 32 wickets in the powerplay, the next best being Trent Boult (21).
However, Pathan feels that CSK will have to rely on Hangargekar until Chahar’s return and also backed the youngster.
“Obviously for Deepak Chahar, it is not easy to find because the kind of bowler and the skills he brings to the table like swinging the ball around and getting early wickets. As soon as he gets fit he comes into the playing XI but till then they need to reply on Hangargekar. I think he will be the guy who will actually come with a lot of potential,” he added.