Chennai Super Kings franchise named South African pacer Sisanda Magala for a base price of 50 Lakhs for the upcoming Indian Premier League season starting on 31 March. CSK will open the tournament against defending Champions Gujarat Titans to be played at Narendra Modi Stadium, Ahmedabad.
Kyle Jamieson was bought by the Chennai Super Kings franchise for Rs 1 Crore in the mini auction but due to the reoccurrence of the back injury, the pace bowler took his name away from Indian Premier League season 16.
Magala played a few T20I matches for South Africa when their star bowlers including Nortje, and Rabada were not available for the series against Pakistan.
Magala was unsold in the IPL auction and never featured in the Indian Premier League season. He was impressive during the inaugural SA T20 tournament featuring eventual champions Sunrisers Eastern Cape this year. He took 14 wickets at an economy rate of 8.68 runs per over. The pace bowler finished as the joint-fifth leading wicket-taker in the tournament.
It will be a great experience for the young pacer from South Africa to feature in the best T20 league for the Yellow army. Chennai Super Kings would be hoping to give some games for Magala for CSK.
Magala has played 4 T20I matches for South Africa and grabbed 3 wickets at an economy rate of 9.85 runs per over. The pace bowler has been given a central contract and is currently playing the ongoing series against West Indies. He might be included in the ODI series against the Netherlands which is a part of the ICC ODI Super League series.
South Africa will play 2 ODI matches remaining which were suspended due to COVID. This series will be important as the Proteas need to win to stay in contention for direct qualification in WC 2023 to be played in India.
CSK squad for IPL 2023
Chennai Super Kings will be bolstered by all-rounder Ben Stokes for Rs 16.25 Crore, Ajiyanka Rahane for 1 Crore, Magala for 50 Lakhs, Nishant Sandhu 20 Lakhs, Shaik Rasheed 20 Lakhs, Ajay Mandal 20 Lakhs and Bhagath Verma for 20 Lakhs.
CSK would be eager to come back with a brilliant performance as they finished disappointing 9th in 2022. MS Dhoni and Co will be looking for all to fire big-time with core players like Ravindra Jadeja, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Moeen Ali, Ambati Rayudu, Shivam Dube, Devon Conway, Mitchell Santer, Prashanth Solanki, Tushar Deshpande, Mukesh Chaudhary, Deepak Chahar, Mahesh Theekshana retained for this year edition.
They have been clubbed with Sunrisers Hyderabad, Gujarat Titans, Royal Challengers Bangalore, and Punjab Kings in Group B.
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