New Delhi, Apr 12 (IANS): India and Chennai Super Kings' fast bowler Deepak Chahar's potential return to IPL 2022 remains doubtful after he suffered a back injury during his rehab at the National Cricket Academy (NCA) in Bengaluru.

The seriousness of the injury remains to be ascertained, as it has been learned that CSK are yet to get a formal report from BCCI.

Notably, the 29-year old had suffered a quadricep tear during India's T20I series against West Indies in February and the pacer has been at the NCA for more than a month now, recovering from his injury. The initial assessment by the NCA physios projected that Chahar was set to miss a major chunk of the ongoing season of IPL as his quick recovery kept CSK hopeful of a return in late April.

However, the back injury is likely to further damage Chahar's chances of return to the IPL, considering the BCCI and the Indian team management would want him to be at his best fitness as India prepare for the T20 World Cup, scheduled to begin in October, an ESPNcricinfo report said.

Chahar, who is known for his effective swing with the new ball and is also an able lower-order hitter, has been a key player for CSK in the past couple of years. His presence has already hurt the balance of Ravindra Jadeja-led side in the ongoing IPL 2020.

Defending Champions CSK have lost all four matches to begin with and they are most crucially missing him with the ball in the powerplay, where they have managed just two wickets at an economy rate of 8.62 in 24 overs across the four games, and have not yet been able to find an ideal replacement for him.

Super Kings spent Rs 14 crore for Chahar at the mega auction, but now seem to struggle in his absence. The likes of Mukesh Choudhary, Tushar Deshpande, Adam Milne and Chris Jordan have been used with the new ball but none of them has been very effective. Among still other options, the four times champions have KM Asif and Rajvardhan Hangarkekar who can take the new ball for them in the matches to come.