The 2-year ban has had no effects on the consistency of Chennai Super Kings as they have come back into the IPL and have made two back to back finals straightaway.
The men in yellow are again going to be one of the favorites in IPL 2020, especially in UAE conditions where the pitches will be slow, the grounds will be big and the spinners will have a huge role to play.
Here is the strongest possible XI of CSK in IPL 2020 –
Openers (Shane Watson, Ambati Rayudu)
Shane Watson and Ambati Rayudu are automatic picks as openers and they complement each other very well as well.While Watson is a dasher and likes to go after the bowling straightaway, Rayudu is more of a conventional player who goes through the gears gradually.
However, Rayudu is a fantastic player of spin and once the spinners are into the attack, he often puts his foot on the gas and takes the game away from the opposition.
Middle Order (Suresh Raina, Kedar Jadhav, MS Dhoni)
Suresh Raina has been batting at no. 3 for CSK for many, many years now and his batting position is likely to remain unchanged this year too. The left-hander will provide the impetus to the CSK innings in the middle overs and will make sure the tempo of the run-scoring is maintained.
Kedar Jadhav and MS Dhoni will probably bat in the second half of the innings and since both of them have got the power game, they can make some real damage in the death if the bowlers don’t get their lengths right.
Bowlers (Deepak Chahar, Piyush Chawla, Lungi Ngidi)
Deepak Chahar is again a swing bowler and he will share the new ball with Sam Curran, while Lungi Ngidi will bowl first change. Ngidi will also be the second death bowling option for the captain MS Dhoni along with Bravo.
Piyush Chawla will be the second spinner in the XI and he will play ahead of Tahir as Curran will be accommodated in the XI as the fourth overseas player. Chawla is a slightly different kind of bowler than Tahir as he is more of a googly bowler than a proper leg spinner, but he has been very, very effective in the IPL over the years.
All-rounders (Dwayne Bravo, Ravindra Jadeja, Sam Curran)
CSK has the luxury of having many all-rounders in the squad and they will probably go with three of them in the first XI – Bravo, Jadeja, and the new signing Sam Curran.
Sam Curran is a swing bowler and he will bowl in the powerplay, while Bravo will do the bulk of the bowling in the latter stages of the innings. Jadeja is always very useful on pitches where there is any hint of turn and UAE pitches will definitely offer some turn.
Apart from their utility with the ball, these three players can also give it a proper whack with the bat, batting lower down the order at no. 6, 7, and 8 respectively.
