Moeen Ali ruled out of Chennai’s opening clash against Kolkata

The Indian T20 League is just a few days away. The tournament is set to kick off on March 26, with a match between defending champions Chennai and runners-up of the last season Kolkata. Ahead of the match, Chennai has been dealt with another massive blow as star player Moeen Ali will miss the game due to visa issues. Notably, Chennai also will be without the services of Deepak Chahar, who will miss the initial part of the tournament due to injury.

Speaking about Moeen, the all-rounder was retained by the franchise ahead of the mega auction earlier this year for INR 8 crore. Moeen Ali had applied for the visa about four weeks ago but that has not been approved by the Indian high commission in London.

“It’s terrible but we can’t do anything. Moeen has played in India a good few times so I don’t see why (has not been granted the visa yet). We are hoping he will get the visa soon,” Moeen’s father Munir Ali told Cricbuzz on Wednesday (March 23).

Meanwhile, Chennai CEO Kasi Viswanathan also confirmed Moeen missing the first game. “He is certainly ruled out for the first game,” said Kasi Viswanathan, the CEO of the franchise. “We were confident he would get the papers on Monday (March 21). Even if he gets today (Wednesday, March 23), he can reach only tomorrow (March 24) and go into quarantine. He will miss the first game but we are hoping he gets the visa soon enough. We have spoken to Jay Shah (the Board of Control for Cricket in India secretary) and other IPL officials. They are doing their best too, to help us.”