After the complete unexpected season last year for Chennai Super Kings where they were unable to qualify for the playoffs for the first time ever in the history. Despite the fact, Chennai Super kings missed the services of key players like Suresh Raina in the entire last season which in result they have ended their IPL campaign with seventh spot in the league table at the end.
But with the return of Suresh Raina into the team, once again CSK has tick all the boxes before the season starts to be the favourites of the tournament. Although, the pace bowler Josh Hazelwood has ruled out of the tournament due to personal reasons which may somewhere affect the balance of the CSK team. Still after missing the services of Josh Hazelwood, the CSK side has depth in the bowling to derail the campaign of the other teams in the league. Having said, let us take a look at the strengths, weaknesses and opportunities for CSK ahead of IPL 2021.
Chennai Super Kings Squad in IPL 2021 –
MS Dhoni (C & WK), Suresh Raina, Ambati Rayudu, KM Asif, Deepak Chahar, Dwayne Bravo, Faf du Plessis, Imran Tahir, N Jagadeesan, Karn Sharma, Lungi Ngidi, Mitchell Santner, Ravindra Jadeja, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Shardul Thakur, Sam Curran, R Sai Kishore, Robin Uthappa, Moeen Ali, Krishnappa Gowtham, Cheteshwar Pujara, M Harisankar Reddy, K Bhagath Varma, C Hari Nishaanth.
Strengths – CSK strength is always in his batting
There is no doubt about the batting of CSK in the long history of IPL. Many surreal records have been created by the CSK batting which is enough to back their batting strength. While with the return of Suresh Raina, the team middle order looks more stable now from the last campaign.
With all the top order batsman including himself captain MS Dhoni are very experienced is the another factor they are once again the season favourites. Alongside batting, CSK have quality all-rounders who can bat as well as bowl under any circumstances. R.Jadeja, Deepak Chahar, Shardul Thakur, Dwayne Bravo, Sam Curran, Mitchell Santner and Moen Ali are some genuine match-winners who have the ability to play anchor roles like they played in the previous seasons.
Weakness – CSK Weakness lies in their fast bowling
Although all the players experienced much, even the young fast bowlers have the experience of playing in the IPL. With Josh Hazelwood ruled out of the season, CSK now has Lungi Ngidi only overseas fast bowler who would get the support of Shardul Thakur and Deepak Chahar ahead of IPL 2021 season.
Where last year CSK spin-attack looked very strong this year they have released Piyush Chawla while retaining Imran Tahir who will get the support of Karn Sharma, Mitchell Santner and Sam Curran. Like the quality depth in the batting, CSK has limited options in the bowling department if any player would get injured like last season it will create problems for them in the season.
Opportunities – Young batsman have opportunity to prove themselves
Players like Ruturaj Gaikwad have the opportunity to prove himself with the kind of potential he has and it was witnessed in the last year season too. With the major series of Sri Lanka, Zimbabwe and Asia Cup after this IPL season is coming up. It's time for Karnataka players to prove his authority for the coming series.
Apart from the series, the T-20 world cup tournament is also this year so for the players like Ambati Rayudu, Cheteswar Pujara and Robin Uthappa have the point to prove himself for restricting the white-ball cricket career.
