There is a lot of news coming from the Chennai Super Kings (CSK) camp ahead of the IPL 2024 curtain raiser, where the Yellow Army will host Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) in Chennai on Friday (March 22).

While on Thursday (March 21), it was confirmed that Ruturaj Gaikwad has succeeded MS Dhoni as the CSK captain, another important update has emerged for the Chennai fans. Matheesha Pathirana, Sri Lanka's young pacer, has been declared fit ahead of the season-opener. Pathirana, who ended with 19 wickets in IPL 2023 (third-most for CSK), suffered a hamstring tear (Grade 1) during Sri Lanka's tour of Bangladesh. He got injured during the second and penultimate T20I and has been away from action since then. Now, his manager confirmed, on X, that he has been declared fit. "The answer to 'Where's Pathirana'. He is fit and ready to throw Thunder balls. Be ready. Finally a together with the Legend," Kalugalage wrote on Friday. Here is the post: IPL 2024: Ruturaj Gaikwad reveals MS Dhoni told him to 'be ready' for CSK captaincy in 2023 Pathirana is, however, expected to join the CSK setup only after he gets a clearance from the Sri Lanka Cricket Board (SLC). Earlier, it was reported that the 21-year-old would miss 2-3 games due to injury. However, CSK fans would hope for his early appearance in the IPL 2024 edition. On Friday evening, CSK and RCB will lock horns and kickoff the 17th season of the cash-rich league. The match will mark the commencement of the Gaikwad-era in the Chennai setup with Dhoni stepping away from captaincy duties. CSK squad for IPL 2024: MS Dhoni (wk), Moeen Ali, Deepak Chahar, Devon Conway (wk), Tushar Deshpande, Shivam Dube, Ruturaj Gaikwad (c), Rajvardhan Hangargekar, Ravindra Jadeja, Ajay Mandal, Mukesh Choudhary, Matheesha Pathirana, Ajinkya Rahane, Shaik Rasheed, Mitchell Santner, Simarjeet Singh, Nishant Sindhu, Prashant Solanki, Matheesha Theekshana, Rachin Ravindra, Shardul Thakur, Daryl Mitchell, Sameer Rizvi, Mustafizur Rahman, Avanish Rao Aravelly