The Indian Premier League (IPL) 2022 will begin on March 26 with defending champions Chennai Super Kings (CSK) squaring off against Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR). Ahead of the high-voltage clash, CSK have received a body blow as England all-rounder Moeen Ali will be missing the game as he has not yet got his visa. The franchise will now hope for Moeen Ali to be available from the second game onwards.
"He has still not got his visa. We have also got in touch with BCCI. BCCI is also working on it," an official CSK release quoted franchise CEO Kasi Viswanathan as saying.
"We are expecting that it will be done in a day or two. This is the position as of today. I cannot say that it will be done today. But we are expecting that it can be cleared today," he added.
The CSK CEO also stated that right now it is not known when Moeen Ali will be available. Due to the visa delay, it has been confirmed that Moeen would not be available for the match against KKR.
"How many matches he will miss depends on when he comes in. Right now, he will miss the first game. Even if he comes tomorrow, he will not be able to play the first game. That is the position as of today. He is packed and ready. The minute he gets the visa, he will board the next flight to India," said Viswanathan.
Last season, CSK had defeated KKR in the final to win their fourth IPL title.
CSK Squad for IPL 2022: MS Dhoni, Moeen Ali, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Ravindra Jadeja, Ambati Rayudu, Dwayne Bravo, Robin Uthappa, Deepak Chahar, KM Asif, Tushar Deshpande, Shivam Dube, Maheesh Theekshana, Rajvardhan Hangargekar, Simarjeet Singh, Devon Conway, Dwaine Pretorius, Mitchell Santner, Adam Milne, Subhranshu Senapati, Mukesh Choudhary, Prashant Solanki, C Hari Nishaanth, N Jagadeesan, Chris Jordan, K Bhagath Varma.