The Chennai Super Kings, one of the most beloved and successful teams in the tournament, will return to the Indian Premier League after a two-year ban. They retained MS Dhoni, Suresh Raina and Ravindra Jadeja prior to the mega-auctions in Bengaluru, and used their two Right To Match (RTM) cards for Dwayne Bravo and Faf Du Pleasis, getting their core team back.
If you look at Chepauk, which is CSK's home ground, the pitch is very slow, the ball does not come onto the bat very well, it becomes softer and softer as the game progresses, and there is where the spinner's would come into play. If you look at the spin department in the CSK squad, they have Jadeja, Harbhajan, Karn Sharma and Imran Tahir, providing you with a variety of spinners, who all bowl differently, which is a major strength of the Chennai Super Kings, especially when they will be playing at home. They also have Kedar Jadhav, who can chip in a few overs of side-arm off-spin as well!
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| Mitchell Santner is injured and is ruled out of the IPL |
If you look at Chepauk, which is CSK's home ground, the pitch is very slow, the ball does not come onto the bat very well, it becomes softer and softer as the game progresses, and there is where the spinner's would come into play. If you look at the spin department in the CSK squad, they have Jadeja, Harbhajan, Karn Sharma and Imran Tahir, providing you with a variety of spinners, who all bowl differently, which is a major strength of the Chennai Super Kings, especially when they will be playing at home. They also have Kedar Jadhav, who can chip in a few overs of side-arm off-spin as well!
It is obvious that the opponent teams will use the same strategy against CSK, by introducing spinners into the game, and that is why CSK have bought batsmen who play spin very well in their squad. If you look at their middle order, it comprises of all Indians who are very fine spinners of spin - Suresh Raina, Ambati Rayudu, MS Dhoni and Kedar Jadhav. They also have Francois Du Pleasis at the top, who plays spin fairly well as well.
It is evident where their weakness lies. They do not have any Indian fast bowlers except for Shardul Thakur and Deepak Chahar, two bowlers on whom you cannot completely rely on. Yes, they do have some excellent overseas fast bowlers in Dwayne Bravo, Lungi Ngidi and Mark Wood, but they do lack the Indian fast bowlers in their squad.
Here is my Predicted XI from the squad:
1. Sam Billings
2. Faf Du Pleasis (if available)
3. Suresh Raina
4. Ambati Rayudu
5. MS Dhoni (Captain & WK)
6. Kedar Jadhav
7. Ravindra Jadeja
8. Dwayne Bravo
9. Harbhajan Singh
10. Mark Wood
11. Shardul Thakur
Cheers,
Sparsh
Quite interesting. Good job.
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