Chennai Super Kings(CSK) have been one of the most consistent teams in the history of the league. It is safe to say that CSK are one of the best IPL teams. This year, the fans will be hoping for a better performance from the men in yellow. The management went into the auction to include a few new names in their squad while maintaining their core. The Chennai squad looks stronger than the last season. Team Cricketkeeda has predicted their playing XI for their first match of IPL 2021.
CSK’s openers would be Ruturaj Gaikwad and Faf Du Plessis. The turnaround for Ruturaj was when he moved on from his failure. Later on, in the five matches, he scored 204 runs for the Super Kings. This meant that he stood up to MS Dhoni’s trust and therefore became the anchor of the CSK batting lineup. With strong performances, he solidified his place in the batting lineup. Over the years, Faf du Plessis has been the core of the batting unit for the Chennai Super Kings. He can accelerate the innings at will.
This makes him a dangerous player. Over 84 IPL games, Faf has scored 2302 runs with the highest score of 96. Last year, when every batsman was failing to put on some runs on the board, Faf amassed 449 runs. He has been a consistent scorer for the men in yellow since 2012. CSK’s Number 3 and 4 would consist of Suresh Raina and Ambati Rayudu. Both of them have been playing CSK for quite a while now. Raina has been playing CSK since 2008 and Rayudu since 2018. Both of them assure stability in the middle overs. The Chennai skipper MS Dhoni bats at 5 for CSK. Well, this is a no-brainer! The only thing which might provide some headaches to the die-hard CSK fans is Dhoni’s batting position! However, the best position for MS Dhoni in this lineup is at number six. This is mainly because Dhoni’s ability to accelerate at will might provide relation to Moeen Ali. Do we even need to justify his spot? Moeen Ali and Ravindra Jadeja would be CSK’s Spin all-rounders and they would be batting at 6 and 7 respectively. MS Dhoni likes to operate with spin bowling. And, Moeen could be the x-factor for the Super Kings this season. Although he has experience of only 19 games, he has a humongous strike rate of 158.46. The highest score of 66 implies that he can score at a quick rate which means there is “intent” in this lineup! Jadeja has been one of the most reliable player for the Super Kings and he’d be their number 7 without a doubt.
Sam Curran would be CSK’s third overseas player as well as their number 8. He was one of the best players for the Chennai Super Kings last year. The English all-rounder was bought in by the Punjab franchise for INR 7.2 crore. However, lack of opportunities meant that he was released from the squad. Then, the CSK management offered him INR 5.5 crore and the rest is history for Curran! SN Thakur bats at 9 for CSK. The Mumbai- based all-rounder had been a vital cog for the Super Kings. Shardul has played in 45 IPL matches so far. In those matches, he has picked up 46 wickets with an economy rate of 8.92. The economy rate is a bit on the higher side mainly because of the adverse circumstances. He is the bowler who is heavily backed by Dhoni and has grown over the years. Last but not the least, Deepak Chahar and Josh Hazlewood would be CSK’a front line bowlers. Both of them have proven their worth, Chahar has been CSK’s go to man in the powerplay overs and Hazlewood has been an absolute gem for Australia in the recent series
To conclude this would be CSK’s playing XI for the first few initial games:
1) Ruturaj Gaikwad
2) Faf Du Plessis
3) Suresh Raina
4) Ambati Rayudu
5) MS Dhoni (C and WK)
6) Moeen Ali
7) Ravindra Jadeja
8) Sam Curran
9) Shardul Thakur
10) Deepak Chahar
11) Josh Hazlewood
Do take a look at the below mentioned video where we have discussed the same in detail