IPL 2021: CSK ‘shocked’ with Josh Hazlewood’s pull-out from IPL

IPL 2021 – CSK Shocked with Josh Hazlewood Pull-Out: Josh Hazlewood’s pull out on Thursday morning has come out as a bolt from blue for MS Dhoni’s Chennai Super Kings. The Chennai Super Kings (CSK) management was ‘completely shocked’ after their lead overseas bowler withdrew from the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2021.

With just nine days left for CSK vs Delhi Capitals (DC), the news has left the MS Dhoni-led side in a difficult situation. InsideSport.co reached out to CSK management and were told that they will take some time to finalize the replacement and wasn’t expecting this development.

“We haven’t decided on any replacement for Hazlewood yet. We are yet to decide our way forward, and will make a decision in the coming days,”, said Kasi Viswanathan, CEO of CSK.

It seems CSK was caught completely off-guard as Hazlewood decided to pull out from IPL 2021. Unlike Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH), who were completely ready with the replacement for Mitchell Marsh, CSK were clueless about Hazlewood’s decision.

With-in 30 mins of Marsh’s pullout from IPL, SRH announced Jason Roy as his replacement. But according to the CSK management, it will take some time to finalize the replacement.

Under the latest IPL Covid-19 protocols, the 29-year-old Australian cricketer would have to undergo seven-day quarantine plus a 50-day bio-bubble, which he found too restrictive.

The Australian said that he has been in different bio-bubbles since August last year and wanted a break from it.  “It’s been a long 10 months in bubbles and quarantine at different times, so I decided to have a rest from cricket and spend some time at home and in Australia in the next two months,” Hazlewood said to cricket.com.au

New Zealand’s Tim Southee could be a potential replacement signing for Chennai Super Kings. He has played in IPL. He last played for RCB in 2019, but was not very impressive. He eventually lost his place in the playing eleven.

However, the 32-year-old BlackCap pacer has been in decent form of late. In six T20I matches for the Kiwis since November 2020, has taken 12 wickets. He went unsold at the IPL auction and will be available at the base price of INR 75 lakh.

MS Dhoni (C and WK), Suresh Raina, Ambati Rayudu, N Jagadeesan, Faf Du Plessis, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Sam Curran, Ravi Jadeja, Dwayne Bravo, Mitchell Santner, Josh Hazlewood, Shardul Thakur, Karn Sharma, KM Asif, Imran Tahir, R. Sai Kishore, Deepak Chahar, Lungi Ngidi, Moeen Ali, Krishnappa Gowtham, Harisankar Reddy, Bhagvath Varma and Cheteshwar Pujara

Chennai Super Kings will play Delhi Capitals on April 10 at 7:30 pm at Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai.