The 2019 Indian Premier League season continued to be a typical year for Chennai Super Kings in which they once again challenged for the title. The 3-time Champions did slip up in the final moments of the final but it had been a highly successful campaign once again. For a second season in a row, CSK’s old guard under MS Dhoni proved everyone wrong with their performances.
Twelve seasons down the line, it has become an expected feature for CSK to dominate their home games and this happened last year too right from the first match against RCB. The runners up of IPL 2019 won six out of the their seven home games to refllect how good they are at their den. A crucial factor for this dominance was the team’s wily old bowling attack.
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While Imran Tahir finished as the tournament’s best bowler with 26 scalps, the duo of Harbhajan Singh and Ravindra Jadeja also contributed a combined 31 scalps. This season also witnessed the rise of Deepak Chahar as an all-round bowler. By the end of the season, Chahar had become one of Dhoni’s most trusted men at both ends of an inning.
Given the luxury of having such a bowling line-up, CSK could afford an underwhelming season for quite a few of their batsmen. Except Dhoni and Faf du Plessis to an extent, CSK struggled with some of their key batsmen like Suresh Raina, Ambati Rayudu and Shane Watson not being at their very best. In fact, expect his 96 against SRH and a valiant fifty in the final, Watson endured a long lean patch.
In the 2020 IPL Auction, CSK made some interesting additions through the likes of Aussie pace bowler Josh Hazlewood (2 Crore), Piyush Chawla (6.75 Crore), Sam Curran (5.5 Crore) and Sai Kishore (2 Crore).
Chennai Super Kings Squad
MS Dhoni, Dwayne Bravo, Faf du Plessis, Harbhajan Singh, Imran Tahir, Ravindra Jadeja, Suresh Raina, Shane Watson, Ambati Rayudu, KM Asif, Deepak Chahar, Jagadeesan Narayan, Karn Sharma, Kedar Jadhav, Lungi Ngidi, Mitchell Santner, Monu Singh, M Vijay, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Shardul Thakur, Sam Curran, Piyush Chawla, Josh Hazlewood, R Sai Kishore
Strengths
To start off, MS Dhoni will always feature as CSK’s biggest strength. The master tactician has always brought the best out of his players. His use of spinners especially at home will make the team formidable once again. Dhoni’s plans for this season were crystal clear given the fact that he himself had a huge role in CSK signing Piyush Chawla at any cost.
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It remains to be seen how CSK use the likes of Imran Tahir, Piyush Chawla, Harbhajan Singh and Ravindra Jadeja according to home and away conditions.
Although the batting is a worry due to both the age factor and also form of players like Suresh Raina and Ambati Rayudu, CSK players have this clutch mentality to come up with a superb knock in a crucial game.
Apart from these aspects, CSK also bolstered their pace bowling reserves. While the team would hope that Deepak Chahar regains fitness in time, the trio of Josh Hazlewood, Lungi Ngidi and Sam Curran could turn out to be match-winners with the ball. Lungi Ngidi, in particular, will be a welcome return to the squad after the South African missed out on last year’s IPL with an injury. When CSK won the title in 2018, Ngidi had played a massive role with 11 wickets in seven matches. The most impressive thing about his bowling is the fact that he conceded runs at only six runs per over. One can expect MS Dhoni the diligently use Ngidi during the middle-overs.
Weaknesses
CSK’s batting worries have been talked about a lot and the situation remains the same from the previous IPL too. While Suresh Raina hasn’t played a single competitive game since the last IPL due to a knee injury, Ambati Rayudu has also been out of action since the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy. Everyone would also be aware the team’s inspirational skipper MS Dhoni has not played any cricket since the 2019 World Cup semi-final.
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Even the foreign contingent which includes key batsmen like Shane Watson and Faf du Plessis still have some way before regaining their best touch. The Aussie Watson has had middling returns in various T20 leagues while du Plessis has been in poor form for South Africa (Albeit in Test Cricket).
Another issue for the finalists would be their death bowling. While the likes of Sam Curran and Josh Hazlewood are lethal with the new ball, the same can’t be said about their skills for the end overs. As a result, there is a huge question mark over Deepak Chahar’s death bowling partner.
Key Players
MS Dhoni: Surprised? I bet no one would be given the fact that Dhoni literally symbolizes the CSK franchise. CSK’s consistent success in the IPL can solely be attributed to MS Dhoni’s nous and experience. That is why Dhoni would have to play a huge part both as a captain and also as a batsman if his team is going to do well in this season.
While several experts and fans raised their doubts over Dhoni’s ability to play freely at the international level at this stage of his career, the 38-year-old is still one of CSK’s best batsman. After all, Dhoni has averaged 75.83 and 83.20 in the last two years while scoring runs at a strike-rate of more than 140. A large reason for Dhoni’s free-flowing batting for CSK can be attributed to the presence of all-rounders like Dwayne Bravo and Ravindra Jadeja.
Taking this into consideration, CSK fans will be hoping that Dhoni is at his very best when the takes on Mumbai Indians in the opening match of the new season.
Faf du Plessis: For long, Faf du Plessis has been a reliable player for Chennai Super Kings. Even last year, du Plessis played superbly to muster 396 runs in 12 matches. However, the last few months haven’t been great for the 35-year-old.
A mediocre Test tour of India in terms of both batting and captaincy was followed by a 3-1 loss against England at home. As if the loss against England was the final nail in the coffin, du Plessis stepped down as the South African across formats. Even though the team’s batting struggled on an overall basis, du Plessis’ value was pretty evident as CSK managed three fifty-plus opening partnerships post his first match of the season against Kings XI Punjab. If du Plessis goes onto do well this season, he would lay a platform for Watson, Raina and Dhoni to be at their aggressive best.
Deepak Chahar: A much-improved bowler under MS Dhoni, Deepak Chahar bowled outstandingly throughout the 2019 IPL season. Be it, wickets with the new ball or restricting runs during the death overs, Chahar did whatever Dhoni asked him to do. Most importantly, the seamer started to bowl cracking yorkers with this delivery improving his already-impressive skillset. Such all-round bowling helped Chahar to pick up 22 wickets in 17 games.
Even on the economy count, Chahar was really superb as he conceded runs at only 7.47 per over. Unfortunately, Chahar sustained a stress fracture in the back last year and this means that he will be touch and go for the first few matches of the IPL. CSK’s captain MS Dhoni would want Chahar to be fully fit given the fact that Shardul Thakur hasn’t provided the same kind of control or wicket-taking threat.
Probable Playing XI:
Shane Watson/Ruturaj Gayakwad, Faf du Plessis, Suresh Raina, Ambati Rayudu, MS Dhoni (C & wk), Ravindra Jadeja, Dwayne Bravo, Deepak Chahar, Harbhajan Singh, Lungi Ngidi, Shardul Thakur/Imran Tahir