IPL 2019: For Chennai Super Kings, experience is key once again as Dhoni eyes fourth title

In the recently released Hotstar documentary Roar of the Lion, MS Dhoni recalls some interesting aspects from the 2018 Indian Premier League season – when Chennai Super Kings went on to win an incredible third title in the first year of their comeback.

For most part of the season, Dhoni remarked, the team had a massive travelling entourage everywhere because almost all of the players had wives and kids. He refers to the team as “Dad’s Army”, “Chennai Senior Kings” and so on. He also quips that the perception that the team was full of players aged 30 or above was not entirely true, it was actually closer to 33 or 34.

Ultimately, the joke was on those who doubted the inevitability of CSK making the playoffs before the season began. But that aside, even Dhoni gave the impression it was nothing short of a miracle that they ended up winning the whole thing.

Make no mistake, if cricket was being played on paper, that CSK team had no business becoming champions in what was perhaps the most competitive season in IPL history. And yet, they made their experience count at crucial stages of matches throughout the season. Winning the big moments, as coach Stephen Fleming put it, was the key to their success and it helped that they had players step up from all over the squad at different points during their campaign.

Expect 2019 to be not much different as CSK bank on their experience once again. The Chennai franchise are the only side to have made the playoffs in every single edition that they have played in – a truly remarkable record in a tournament where every team has gone through crests and troughs.

History

The big changes for 2019

There was a running joke among Arsenal fans in the early years of Arsene Wenger’s reign after the move to the Emirates Stadium. The club was so tied up for funds that transfers in and out of the club were often a source for tragicomic entertainment. During that time, Wenger had a remarkable knack of looking for a positive every time an injured player would make a comeback after a long period out (which happened a lot): XYZ is “like a new signing.” The club had so many more of those than actual newcomers.

CSK fans would hope that is where the comparison with Arsenal would stop, as they prepare to welcome a couple of “new signings” in Kedar Jadhav and Mitchell Santner.

Jadhav played just one match in 2018 – a one-legged cameo returning to bat at No 11 after injuring his hamstring against Mumbai Indians in the opener. Santner took no part because of his pre-season injury. And both players will add value to the squad, fitness permitting, this time around.

Fleming has said Jadhav’s presence in the middle order will give Dhoni the chance to be flexible with his batting position, while Santner’s return bolsters the spin bowling department which will prove handy as CSK return to Chepauk for an entire season. The New Zealander will also improve the team’s overall fielding standards from the depths of 2018.

It should come as no surprise that the team retained a large part of their 2018 squad. They bought a grand total of two players in the mini-auction, one of them an unknown entity in Ruturaj Gaikwad (Maharashtra batsman) and the other, a familiar face in Mohit Sharma (after bidding keenly for a few Indian pacers before his name came up). Mohit, no stranger to Dhoni, becomes especially important with Lungi Ngidi being ruled out due to injury and if he can plug a gaping hole in their last season’s performances (read: death bowling), he would have been a worthy addition.

At the risk of this turning into “fool me twice, shame on me”, however, it is tough to see how the same ploy will work for two seasons running. Especially when you take out one key part of the winning equation: the big emotional drive of proving a point to the outside world. Dhoni made an interesting observation in the Hotstar series that Indian cricket (from fans to players) is driven by emotion more than anything. Is that aspect going to be strong enough this year for the team to push past some inevitable injuries and pull wins from the jaws of defeats?

Indian players under World Cup radar

There is the curious case of Ambati Rayudu to consider here. He made his mark in 2018 for CSK, predominantly as an opener with Shane Watson, and eventually forced his way back into the Indian team. Will he be used as an opener again with his spot in the Indian middle order hanging by a thread, seemingly? Or will Dhoni opt to open with Watson and Faf du Plessis and give Rayudu a chance as a non-opener to further his claim to the World Cup squad. Strike rotation has become a problem area for Rayudu and the team management would be keen to see him in the middle overs more than the powerplay. All said and done, the first few weeks of IPL might be make or break for him, as far as his World Cup chances go.

There is also Ravindra Jadeja, who is perhaps in a better position of making the cut because he is likely to be the only spin bowling all-rounder in the India set-up. He did not have the best of IPLs last time around as he blew hot and cold in all three departments.

The two certainties to make the 15 are Jadhav and Dhoni – the core of India’s middle-order. While all the talk has been about the workload management of the fast bowlers, these two would figure right up there in the list of players the management would be keeping an eye on, crossing their fingers. Dhoni, despite playing just white-ball cricket, has been afforded rest against New Zealand and Australia presumably with his IPL workload in mind while Jadhav’s hamstrings have been a concern for a while.

But if Dhoni manages to recapture the hitting form of 2018, there will be plenty who heave a sigh of relief ahead of the World Cup, not least the fans.

CSK squad for 2019

MS Dhoni (C), Ravindra Jadeja, Suresh Raina, Kedar Jadhav, Dwayne Bravo, Mohit Sharma, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Karn Sharma, Shane Watson, Shardul Thakur, Ambati Rayudu, Murali Vijay, Harbhajan Singh, Faf Du Plessis, Sam Billings, Imran Tahir, Deepak Chahar, Asif KM, N Jagadeesan, Monu Singh, Dhruv Shorey, Chaitanya Bish