Ghosh's IPL debut ends in a fracture as CSK lose a fourth player to injury
Ramakrishna Ghosh, the seam-bowling all-rounder Chennai capped on Saturday night, picked up a foot fracture during the same match against Mumbai Indians at Chepauk. The franchise confirmed on Sunday that the injury would rule him out for the rest of IPL 2026, with a replacement yet to be named.
A debut that promised something more
Ghosh's first innings in yellow lasted long enough to leave a mark. On the eighth ball of the MI chase he flung himself to his left at point and held a diving catch off Anshul Kamboj to remove Will Jacks. When his own first IPL over arrived, he banged a short ball in at 133 kph and had Suryakumar Yadav caught at deep point.
That was supposed to be the start of something. Ghosh had arrived at Chennai on the back of career-best white-ball figures of seven for 42, and the coaching staff had been openly enthusiastic about a young option who could bowl heavy lengths and contribute lower in the order.
The fourth name on a growing list
Ghosh joins Nathan Ellis, Khaleel Ahmed and Ayush Mhatre on Chennai's IPL 2026 sidelines. Ellis was ruled out before the tournament with a hamstring problem and was replaced by Spencer Johnson. Khaleel followed not long after, leaving CSK reliant on Anshul Kamboj and Matheesha Pathirana to share the new-ball overs. Mhatre, the 18-year-old opener who had scored 201 runs in six innings at a strike rate of 177.87, went down with a hamstring injury earlier in the campaign and was replaced by Akash Madhwal.
Three of the four absences are in CSK's seam attack. The group that began the season with Ellis at the death and Khaleel taking the new ball now leans on Pathirana to carry the back end almost alone, with the left-arm pace option lost entirely.
What it means for the playoff push
The Mumbai win lifted CSK to sixth on eight points and kept their playoff arithmetic alive, but the squad they take into the closing weeks will look very different from the one they began with. Johnson missed the start of the season recovering from a back injury, and Madhwal's white-ball workload coming in is light. The next few selections from the bench will tell us how much faith the Chennai management still has in the original blueprint.
For Ghosh, the consolation is that an IPL debut featuring a maiden wicket and a highlight catch is more than most rookies manage. The full season can wait.
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