Chennai: Chennai Super Kings coach Stephen Fleming said Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Ravindra Jadeja are "pretty sick", an update that could leave fans, slowly gearing up to switch to World Cup mode, worried.
Both players missed CSK's 46-run defeat at the hands of Mumbai Indians on Friday night. Dhoni, their inspirational captain, was ruled out of the game owing to fever.
Shedding light on Dhoni and Jadeja's illness, Fleming said, "They (Dhoni and Jadeja) both are pretty sick... both unwell, virus and bacteria... A lot of teams are struggling at the moment through that."
With 314 runs at an average of above 100 from just seven innings, Dhoni has been leading the batting charts for CSK in the ongoing Indian Premier League.
The World Cup starts May 30 in the United Kingdom, and both Dhoni and Jadeja are part of the Indian squad, which will begin its campaign on June 5 against South Africa.
When CSK played without Dhoni for the first time in IPL 2019, they suffered a six-wicket thrashing by Sunrisers Hyderabad on April 17.
CSK, who have sealed a place in the playoffs, will next face Delhi Capitals in Chennai on May 1.
Fleming said the entire team is looking forward to the four-day break after having played six matches in the last two weeks.
"We're looking forward to the four-day break. It's probably come one day bit too late. But we've got a four-day break now. I think Mumbai benefitted from that (five-day break). We are going to look to do the same now," the former New Zealand captain said
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Bharuch (Gujarat) (PTI): Four workers died on Sunday after inhaling toxic fumes following gas leakage at a chemical plant at Dahej in Gujarat's Bharuch district, police said.
The victims fell unconscious after inhaling the toxic fumes leaking from a pipe at a production unit of the Gujarat Fluorochemicals Limited (GFL) at around 10 pm on Saturday, Dahej police station inspector BM Patidar said.
They were rushed to a private hospital in Bharuch. Three of them died at around 3 am on Sunday, while another one succumbed at 6 am, the official said.
"The incident occurred at around 10 pm when the four workers fell unconscious due to gas leakage from the pipe passing through the ground floor of the company's CMS plant. They were rushed to a private hospital where all four of them died," he said.
The bodies were sent for postmortem and further probe into the incident was underway, the official said.
The deceased have been identified as Rajesh Kumar (hailing from Gujarat), Mudrika Yadav (belonging to Jharkhand), Sushit Prasad and Mahesh Nandlal (both from Uttar Pradesh), police said.
GFL, Dahej, Deputy General Manager Jignesh Parmar told reporters that they will investigate the matter and a compensation of Rs 25 lakh would be paid to the kin of each of the deceased workers.
"The company and the management are saddened by the incident. We have promised to cooperate with legal authorities and we will investigate the matter and bring out our report," he said.
Sub Divisional Magistrate, Bharuch, Manisha Manani said three of the deceased were from other states.
"Four persons died due to gas leakage at the GFL plant near Ambeta village. The bodies have been sent to the civil hospital in Bharuch for post-mortem and an investigation is underway," Manani said.