Former New Zealand pacer Mitchell McClenaghan stated that Mustafizur Rahman and Matheesha Pathirana were greatly missed by Chennai Super Kings (CSK) in the match against Gujarat Titans (GT) on Friday. Neither of the pacers is currently available for the CSK in the tournament.

Against Zimbabwe, Mustafizur is currently competing in a five-match T20 International series. However, in order to receive treatment for his hamstring injury, Pathirana went back to Sri Lanka. Friday, CSK knew they were missing a key player as GT scored 231 runs for three wickets and went on to win by 35 runs.

“CSK showed that they desperately missed Pathirana and Mustafizur because of their experience and wicket-taking ability. On that kind of a wicket, you would have got a feeling that they would have found a way,” McClenaghan told ESPNcricinfo.

Daryl Mitchell bowling his entire allotment of overs is obviously not ideal for CSK, according to the former Kiwi bowler. Mitchell had a tough day with the ball, finishing with pricey statistics of 4-0-52-0, despite scoring 63 off 34.

“Today, they had to rely on Daryl Mitchell to bowl four overs and that’s not ideal,” he added.

With the defeat, CSK are now entered in the fierce competition with other teams to qualify for the playoffs.