Chennai Super Kings have long begun their preparations for IPL 2022 in Surat with the the likes of captain MS Dhoni, Dwayne Bravo, Rajvardhan Hangargekar, Ambati Rayudu in attendance. However, the defending champions are clueless on Ruturaj Gaikwad, Deepak Chahar's availability for IPL 2022.Deepak Chahar was bought by Chennai Super Kings (CSK) for a whopping ₹14 crore, which is the second most expensive buy in this year's IPL auction. But the 29-year-old Rajasthan cricketer endured a right quadriceps injury while playing in the final T20 against the West Indies, which ruled him out of the subsequent assignment against Sri Lanka as well. Chahar is reportedly out for eight weeks, hinting towards his unavailability for the first half of the IPL season, but the BCCI is yet to provide an official update on his status.
Chennai's opener and last edition's highest run-getter Ruturaj Gaikwad has also sustained a hand injury. He was ruled out of the Sri Lanka T20Is and Mayank Agarwal was added to the squad. Kasi Vishwanathan, the team CEO, provided a major update on Chahar and Ruturaj, saying the team management is still awaiting the fitness updates of its key players. We are not aware of their current fitness status and won't be able to tell you when they would join the squad," said Vishwanathan about Chahar and Ruturaj as quoted by PTI. "Obviously, the BCCI has told us that once they are match-fit, they would intimate us. They are at the NCA currently." All India players need to be at the NCA and get the clearance certificate after appearing in various fitness tests once the rehabilitation programme is complete. CSK decided to retain a large part of their previous edition’s core in the recent mega auction. They had retained four players; Ravindra Jadeja, MS Dhoni, Moeen Ali and Ruturaj ahead of the two-day event in Bengaluru. The defending champions will start their campaign against last year's runners-up Kolkata Knight Riders on March 26
