Former Indian Wicket Keeper Parthiv Patel feels that MS DHoni will be slightly disappointed as his side — Chennai Super Kings (CSK) will have to play out of Chennai in the upcoming season of Indian Premier league (IPL)..
Significantly, the Yellow Brigade had tried to strengthen their spin attack considering that seven of the 14 games they will be playing at their home. However, the IPL Governing Council later announced that none of the teams will play any home game as all the matches will be held at neutral venues.
“See, obviously they must be slightly disappointed that they have to get out of Chennai because they have got Moeen Ali in their squad, they have got K Gowtham in their squad. Last year, what went wrong for CSK was, that they were not getting enough runs on the board. Then, in the latter half of the tournament, you see emergence of Ruturaj Gaikwad,” Parthiv said.
“And now with Suresh Raina coming in the squad. I think he holds big key in the CSK lineup and we have seen what he has done throughout the years of IPL. With him coming back and Rituraj Gaikwad doing well in domestic cricket and plus MS Dhoni, they’re great players and you can’t count them out for too long. He (MS Dhoni) had an indifferent season last year but as we saw how keen he is (spoke to him few times) and he is very determined to get CSK’s ball rolling to start with,” he added.
Earlier, the last season of the cash-rich league was a season to forget for three-time champions as it was the only time when they had failed to enter the playoffs.
In order to start afresh and leave the painful memories of previous season behind, CSK had looked at every possible way to strengthen their squad in the recently held mini-auctions, where they tried to bolster their spin attack considering the way Chepauk wicket plays.
However, their decision may now backfire as none of the eight team will play any home game in the upcoming season of the Indian Premier League (IPL).
In need of an off-spinning all-rounder, the Yellow Brigade bagged K Gowtham for Rs 9.25 crore, making him the most expensive uncapped player in league’s history, and also acquired the services of England all-rounder Moeen Ali. They already had spinners like Karn Sharma, Imran Tahir, Sai Kishore, Mitchell Santner and Ravindra Jadeja in the ship.
Significantly of the total 25 players in CSK’s squad, seven of them are spinners. However, after the Governing Council (GC) announced the schedule for the upcoming season, which will begin on April 9, it is clear that the MS Dhoni-led side will now play five games in Mumbai’s Wankhede, four in Delhi’s Kotla, three in Bengaluru’s Chinnaswamy and two in Kolkata’s Eden Garden.
Barring Kolkata, the remaining three venues have been batsman’s paradise as the wickets over there are flat and even the boundaries are very small.
The GC’s decision came as a jolt for the Yellow Brigade is evident from the fact that now the CSK franchise, who were holding their training camp in Chennai, is now seriously looking to shift it to Mumbai.
The upcoming edition is now just a month away and the CSK franchise will surely be a bit nervous after the GC’s decision.
With the circumstances now not in favour of CSK, it will now be interesting to see whether the charismatic captain, who is likely to play his last IPL, will be able to deliver as he has done over the years or once again his side will succumb in unfavourable condition.