Skip to main content

IPL 2014 : Team Analysis - Chennai Super Kings

By Anonymous
Here is a  look at the CSK team for the 2014 IPL edition - and my take on it.
  • Brendon McCullum, Faf Du Plessis, Suresh Raina, Dwayne Smith, Mithun Manhas and Baba Aparajit are the pure play batsmen
  • Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Dwayne Bravo, John Hastings, Vijay Shankar are the all rounders
  • Dhoni is the keeper
  • Mohit Sharma, Ashish Nehra, Ishwar Pandey, Ben Hilfenhaus, Samuel Badree, Matt Henry, Ronit More, Pavan Negi are the pure play bowlers
I think the following players will be automatic selections - atleast for the initial games: Dhoni, Raina, Bravo, McCullum, Faf Du Plessis, Ashwin, Jadeja, Mohit Sharma and Ishwar Pandey.
Matt Henry, Ben Hilfenhaus, Samuel Badree and Dwayne Smith will compete for the 4th international player slot - based on whether Dhoni wants to play an extra bowler or batsman.  

There are a lot of all rounders in the squad.  Even though Dhoni doesn’t prefer it, I think there will be a lot more changes in the playing XI this year for CSK - it will take a while before Dhoni settles in on a preferred XI.

The batting looks solid with tremendous power - big hitters who can post massive scores on good batting wickets.  But with guys like Hussey and Badri gone, I wonder who will provide stability in low scoring games.  

The bowling looks pretty weak to me - even with the two Indian spinners Ashwin and Jadeja in the attack.  The fast bowling department looks particularly weak.   Dhoni cannot count on this bowling squad to win matches for him.  He will probably look at setting reasonable targets for the bowlers and ask them to execute on set plans.  It will be interesting to see how Ishwar Pandey bowls.  This might be the seeding ground for him before he goes on to play for India.


Overall, this team does not look threatening on paper.  However, CSK so far has had an impressive IPL track record.  Will the Dhoni magic work this time as well …Let us see if he can get them to the semi-finals yet again.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

TNPL - A Brief Rundown

By
Based on the stupendously successful Indian Premier League is the Tamil Nadu Premier League. This Indian T20 cricket league has been established by the Tamil Nadu State Cricket Association to bring out more and more Natarajans and Washingtons who otherwise do not get a chance to showcase their skill and talent in the world of Cricket. The inaugural edition of the TNPL took place in 2016 and received unexpected and unprecedented success and love. There was a brilliant batch of young men who came forward and made an event out of the first season of TNPL. Venues  India Cements Ground, Thirunelveli NPR College Ground, Dindigul  MA Chitambaram Stadium, Chennai  Changes The purpose of every organization is to make it bigger and better. TNPL is no exception. At the inaugural TNPL 2016, there were the traditional two semifinals and one final. This year will see a format similar to IPL. The finalists are decided by two qualifiers along with one eliminator. This format has pr
Post a Comment
Read more

Editor’s Pick(PKL)

By
Four more days of Kabaddi, a teeny break and the next round commences on October 23rd. The super playoffs. All this hard work only for that. A look at the point table will give you an idea about who COULD go to the next level. Course anything could happen in the last minute. Anyone could topple. You remember the havoc Bangladesh created during the Champions Trophy. They threw out the big guns. I mean, they probably stopped West Indies from qualifying too, come to think of it. Back to Kabaddi. Zone A is still topped by Gujarat followed by Haryana and Pune. The other three teams - Mumbai, Jaipur and Delhi. Zone B, Bengal take the lead followed by Patna and UP. Today’s match-UP meets Bengaluru. UP is third and are doing very good for themselves. Bengaluru, fifth on the table, don’t really look like they have a chance. Only thing they do want to do now is walk out with a smile saying yes, we tried. UP Yoddha - Squad strength: 18 (16 Indian, 2 Overseas) Defenders – Jeeva Kumar, Ha
Post a Comment
Read more

From all of us Fans to Players & Officials: Please don't treat us with kid gloves

By Anonymous
As any fan will tell you, we not just love, but understand the sport and our teams like no one else. And that’s also why they keep bankrolling the big fat salaries of the players, the profits of the clubs and the boondoggle of officials. The recently concluded test match raised, in my mind, three instances where the thought process seems to be – it is OK for us to handle it, but it is too hot for fans . Common, now, please don’t treat us with kid gloves. One: The first one, inevitably, is about the DRS and taking the dugouts inputs in it. The rules are clear – the decision to ask for a decision review stays with the players on the field. Within a few seconds of the umpires’ decision, the batting team can dispute an out decision or the bowling team can dispute a not-out decision, without consulting with anyone outside the playing field. The controversy of Smith’s ‘brain-fade’ and Kohli’s allegations have played out ad nauseam on TV and cyberspace, so I will spare you that
2 comments
Read more