Revealed: Why is Mayank Agarwal not playing today's match against CSK and who has replaced him?

Sunrisers Hyderabad will be without their opener Mayank Agarwal for the game against Chennai Super Kings on Friday (April 5). The 18th game of the ongoing IPL 2024 is taking place at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium in Hyderabad.

SRH are eyeing their second win in four games and will be looking to get back to winning ways by defeating the reigning champions. The 2016 IPL winners began their second with a four-run loss against Kolkata Knight Riders before coming up with a stunning performance against Mumbai Indians.

Playing their first home game of the season, SRH piled up a record total of 277/3 against Mumbai Indians and won the game by 31 runs to open their account in IPL 2024. However, they could not sustain the winning momentum and suffered a crushing seven-wicket defeat in the very following game against Gujarat Titans.

Mayank Agarwal is unavailable:

SRH will be hoping to beat CSK and register their second win of the season. And the Hyderabad-based outfit will have to do it without their opener Mayank Agarwal. Speaking at the toss, SRH captain Pat Cummins revealed that Mayank Agarwal won't play the game because he is unwell. Nitish Reddy has replaced the out-of-favor India opener in the SRH playing XI.

"We'll bowl first. Looks like a good wicket and should stay the same for the whole match. We've got a great squad. Mayank Agarwal is unwell, he's replaced by Nitish Reddy. Natarajan is back as well. Last time, there were 500 runs scored, this looks like a good wicket as well," said Pat Cummins.

Talking about Mayank Agarwal's form in the ongoing season, the right-handed batsman failed to impress in the first three games. He scored 32 against KKR before registering scores of 11 and 16 in the next two games.

SRH Playing XI:

Abhishek Sharma, Aiden Markram, Heinrich Klaasen(w), Abdul Samad, Nitish Reddy, Shahbaz Ahmed, Pat Cummins(c), Jaydev Unadkat, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Mayank Markande, T Natarajan

CSK Playing XI:

Ruturaj Gaikwad(c), Rachin Ravindra, Ajinkya Rahane, Moeen Ali, Daryl Mitchell, Shivam Dube, Ravindra Jadeja, MS Dhoni(w), Deepak Chahar, Tushar Deshpande, Maheesh Theekshana