Fizz makes the eleven, Pathirana amongst subs in GT encounter

Bangladesh pacer Mustafizur Rahman made the eleven while Sri Lanka pacer Matheesha Pathirana was named amongst the substitutions in defending champions Chennai Super Kings' (CSK) Indian Premier League encounter against Gujarat Titans (GT) in Chennai today.   

The Fizz starred with four wickets in CSK's opening fixture at home at the Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai on Friday. The left-arm pacer dismissed the likes of Faf Du Plessis, Cameron Green, and Virat Kohli and his effort was pivotal in his sides victory over Royal Challengers Bangalore in the first fixture of the tournament. 

Despite the Fizz's sparkling display, his inclusion remained doubtful as Lankan slinger Pathirana, who played an integral part with 19 wickets in 12 matches in CSK's title win last year, was declared fit after recovering from an injury.

Pathirana was deemed most likely to take Fizz's place in the lineup which named Rachin Ravindra, Daryl Mitchell and Maheesh Theekshana to fill the four foreign player quota in the first match against Bangalore.

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Will Mustafizur lose his place to Pathirana?

However, CSK put an end to the Fizz or Pathirana debate as for their encounter against GT, CSK left out off-spinner Theekshana and decided to include the Fizz in the lineup and put Pathirana in contention for an impact sub. 

Chennai Super Kings: 1 Ruturaj Gaikwad (capt), 2 Rachin Ravindra, 3 Ajinkya Rahane, 4 Daryl Mitchell, 5 Shivam Dube, 6 Ravindra Jadeja, 7 Sameer Rizvi, 8 MS Dhoni (wk), 9 Deepak Chahar, 10 Tushar Deshpande, 11 Mustafizur Rahman

Subs: Matheesha Pathirana, Shardul Thakur, Sheikh Rashid, Nishant Sindhu, Mitchell Santner

Gujarat Titans: 1 Wriddhiman Saha (wk), 2 Shubman Gill (capt), 3 Azmatullah Omarzai, 4 David Miller, 5 Vijay Shankar, 6 Rahul Tewatia, 7 Rashid Khan, 8 R Sai Kishore, 9 Umesh Yadav, 10 Mohit Sharma, 11 Spencer Johnson

Subs: Sai Sudharsan, BR Sharath, Abhinav Manohar, Manav Suthar, Noor Ahmad