Khaleel Ahmed was not part of Chennai Super Kings’ playing XI as they take on Sunrisers Hyderabad in their sixth match of the Indian Premier League 2026 at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium, Hyderabad, on Saturday, April 18.ย
Khaleel has been ruled out of the IPL 2026 due to a quadriceps injury he suffered during the clash against the Kolkata Knight Riders on April 14. He left the field after bowling five balls of his final over, which was completed by Gurjapneet Singh. CSK confirmed the development through a social media post. “The injury sustained will take more than 12 weeks to heal,” CSK said in a statement.
Mukesh Choudhary replaces Khaleel
Meanwhile, Mukesh Choudhary has replaced Khaleel in CSK’s Playing XI for the SRH game. Mukesh was a stand-out bowler for the Super Kings in 2022. This is his first game of the season. CSK made another change as they brought back Matthew Short for Akeal Hosein, who was used as an impact sub in the previous game.
CSK opt to bowl first
CSK captain Ruturaj Gaikwad won the toss and opted to bowl first. “It’s good to be up from the bottom, definitely. But I think from the second game, we started doing basic things right. Our batting was good, our bowling was good, and our fielding has been 50-50. But I think in all departments, we have been doing really well. And the key today is to just stay consistent and just do the basic things right,” Gaikwad said at the toss.
“(Good to see different players perform?) Yes, obviously, last game I felt, Noor bowled really well. Good to have him back on track and definitely, even in death, Anshul bowled really well. So a couple of guys stepping up in the bowling helps a lot. It gives me a lot of confidence and the team a lot of confidence. So, really looking forward to it. (What do you make of the surface?) In your language, it looks like abelter, but you never know how it will be. We’ll look to assess it as soon as possible and, you know, look to restrict them as low as possible,” he added.
Sunrisers Hyderabad (Playing XI): Abhishek Sharma, Travis Head, Ishan Kishan(c), Heinrich Klaasen, Salil Arora(w), Aniket Verma, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Shivang Kumar, Praful Hinge, Sakib Hussain, Eshan Malinga
Chennai Super Kings (Playing XI): Sanju Samson(w), Ruturaj Gaikwad(c), Sarfaraz Khan, Shivam Dube, Dewald Brevis, Jamie Overton, Matthew Short, Anshul Kamboj, Noor Ahmad, Mukesh Choudhary, Gurjapneet Singh
Sunrisers Hyderabad Impact Subs: Smaran Ravichandran, Harsh Dubey, Liam Livingstone, Dilshan Madushanka, Harshal Patel
Chennai Super Kings Impact Subs: Ayush Mhatre, Kartik Sharma, Prashant Veer, Ramakrishna Ghosh, Matt Henry