Why are Mayank Agarwal, Mustafizur and Matheesha Pathirana not playing IPL 2024 Match 18 between SRH vs CSK?

Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) and Chennai Super Kings (CSK) are about to take on each other in Match 18 of the Indian Premier League 2024 (IPL 2024) at Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium, Hyderabad. Both teams are coming into the game having lost their respective last fixtures and hence will be eager to bounce back to winning ways in the upcoming game.

SRH captain Pat Cummins won the toss and invited CSK to bat first on the belter of a track in Hyderabad. Both teams made several changes to their playing XI due to injuries or the absence of certain players. SRH benched their opener Mayank Agarwal who’s unwell and replaced him with Nitish Reddy.

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Agarwal wasn’t in the best of forms in the season so far having scored just 59 runs from three matches. SRH also brought back left-arm seamer T. Natarajan who will be playing his first game of the season. On the other hand, CSK were forced to make three changes to their playing XI. Left-arm seamer Mustafizur Rahman is unavailable for the fixture as he’s flown to Bangladesh to process his US Visa ahead of the T20 World Cup 2024.

CSK bring in Moeen Ali, Theeskshana and Mukesh Choudhary

Notably, Rahman is the joint-highest wicket-taker of the season so far with seven wickets to his name from three innings at an average of 15.14 and an economy of 8.83. Apart from him, speedster Matheesha Pathirana also missed out from the game due to a niggle.

The Sri Lankan seamer was the pick of the bowlers in the last game against DC as he picked three wickets giving away 31 runs from four overs. CSK made a total of three changes and brought in spinner Maheesh Theekshana, all-rounder Moeen Ali and left-arm seamer Mukesh Choudhary.

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Chennai Super Kings (Playing XI): Ruturaj Gaikwad(c), Rachin Ravindra, Ajinkya Rahane, Moeen Ali, Daryl Mitchell, Shivam Dube, Ravindra Jadeja, MS Dhoni(w), Deepak Chahar, Tushar Deshpande, Maheesh Theekshana

Chennai Super Kings Substitute: Shardul Thakur, Shaik Rasheed, Mitchell Santner, Sameer Rizvi , Mukesh Choudhary

Sunrisers Hyderabad (Playing XI): Abhishek Sharma, Aiden Markram, Heinrich Klaasen(w), Abdul Samad, Nitish Reddy, Shahbaz Ahmed, Pat Cummins(c), Jaydev Unadkat, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Mayank Markande, T Natarajan

Sunrisers Hyderabad Substitute: Travis Head, Umran Malik, Washington Sundar, Glenn Phillips, Rahul Tripathi