Name: Chennai Super Kings- Captain: MS Dhoni
- Head Coach: Stephen Fleming
- Home Ground: MA Chidambaram Stadium, Chennai
- Squad members: 24
- Best result: Champions in IPL 2010, 2011, 2018.
They called them the Daddy’s Army in IPL 2019 as Chennai Super Kings had the oldest team in terms of average age of the players. Yet they managed to reach the final last season, following up their successful season in IPL 2018, which was their third IPL trophy. Easily the most consistent team in Indian Premier League history, there hasn’t been a single season where Chennai hasn’t finished in the top four of the league standings yet.
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And in case you thought it was a fluke performance last season, think again as CSK come into IPL 2020 with the least changes from any of the 8 participating franchises. They retained a majority of their squad (20 players) and bought 4 new players (2 Indian + 2 overseas) at the IPL 2020 Auction. Those purchased at the auction include R Sai Kishore, Sam Curran, Josh Hazlewood and Piyush Chawla – interestingly, all bowlers!
However, I don’t see these 4 slotting into the team immediately. For one, Hazlewood has been ignored at the IPL for years, being picked before but never playing a game, primarily because he hasn’t done all that well in limited overs cricket. Curran is an electric young player but it’s tough for him to find a spot ahead of overseas all-rounders like Dwayne Bravo, Shane Watson, Mitchell Santner and others.
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Sai Kishore isn’t experienced enough while Piyush Chawla seems to have a little bit of a decline over the last couple of IPL season, enjoying a fabulous IPL career over the years with 150 IPL wickets to his name. He will compete with the likes of Santner, Ravindra Jadeja, Imran Tahir, Karn Sharma and the part-timer spinning option of Kedar Jadhav for a role in the side as a frontline spinner.
With 10 wickets in 7 bowling outings in PSL 2020 and 26 wickets in 17 games in IPL 2019 which won him the Purple Cap award for the best bowler of the league, the 41-year old leggie will be crucial to the side’s success. Faf du Plessis is one of their batting foreign stars who looked in prime touch in the recent 3 Team Cricket match in South Africa, also known as the 2020 Solidarity Cup. These two may play with Bravo and Watson to make up the foreign player quota.
If the team wants to go in for an additional bowling resource, they may drop Faf for his countryman Lungi Ngidi as they may need a bit of assistance on the pace bowling front. Last year, it was mostly Deepak Chahar who did the damage in the powerplay overs but they need a couple of strike bowlers who can get them wickets in the middle overs. We’re not sure if lightning can strike twice and the experience of the likes of Bhajji will pay off!
The batting order will miss Suresh Raina who has 5,368 IPL career runs and is among the top players in the league with a massive count of 38 fifties. However, he’ll be missed in IPL 2020 as he dropped out of the entire season citing ‘personal reasons’. Read more about it here. Onus then falls on Ambati Rayudu who had a quiet IPL 2019 but a year before, he was on fire as he flexed 600+ runs in 16 games in IPL 2018!
If we expect the same batting line-up, Watto and Rayudu may come out at the top but I doubt there will be as much of faith in Watson as there has been in the last couple of editions, in which case Faf opening with Rayudu is also an option, while Murali Vijay will be waiting in case he gets a chance to come in and perform too! I’m very excited to watch Kedar Jadav in action again and we’ll all be hoping he remains fit right through IPL 2020!
CHENNAI SUPER KINGS SQUAD FOR IPL 2020: MS Dhoni (C),
Suresh Raina, Narayan Jagadeesan, Ruturaj Gaikwad, KM Asif , Ravindra Jadeja, M Vijay, Josh Hazlewood, Kedar Jadhav,Harbhajan Singh, Karn Sharma, Piyush Chawla, Ambati Rayudu, Imran Tahir, Deepak Chahar, Faf du Plessis, Shardul Thakur, Mitchell Santner, Dwayne Bravo, Lungi Ngidi, Sam Curran, Shane Watson, Sai Kishore, Monu Kumar.
Among all of this is the man and the legend himself – MS Dhoni. No one has seen MSD in action since the July 2019 World Cup semi final loss to New Zealand and rumours say he’s been prepping hard to bring his best this year. Remember, he scored 400+ runs in IPL 2018 and IPL 2019 each so if anyone tells you he’s past his prime, that person ought to get a reality check! Stay tuned to ReadScoops.com for updates on CSK’s IPL 2020 journey…
