Chennai Super Kings who had a dismal season last year, have had a disastrous start to their IPL 2021 campaign with their overseas signing Josh Hazlewood expressing his unavailability at the last minute. The Super Kings, as per reports, had approached Aussie paceman Billy Stanlake and England left-armer Reece Topley as a replacement for Hazlewood. However, both of them have turned the offers down, the reason being the increased number of COVID-19 cases in India.
As per a report in TOI, Aussie pacer Billy Stanlake and England's Reece Topley were approached by the CSK franchise as a replacement for Hazlewood but the deal didn't materialise due to Covid fear. While one is well aware that generally non-regular international players are very keen to play in IPL, in a bid to return or appear in their respective national sides with good performances, Covid is one of the reasons holding them back this time around. Hence, players like Stanlake and Topley have shown their reluctance to play IPL 2021.
"Many of them have contracts with English county teams and the permissions aren't forthcoming due to the rising number of Covid cases," a source close to the developments told TOI. However, CSK haven't lost hope and are trying hard to rope in a decent replacement. "We may have to go for a wildcard and may get one soon enough. But the problems do persist," the source added. The three-time IPL winners CSK are currently training in Mumbai, where they play their first game of the upcoming IPL 14 season against Rishabh Pant-led Delhi Capitals (DC) on April 10. The tournament will kick off from April 9 with Mumbai Indians (MI) taking on Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB).
