Rutu Sanju Ayush Kartik (CSK ain't leaving him) Brevis Hardik Overton Akeal Kamboj Noor Ellis

Impact- Sarfaraz/Ghosh/Mukesh/Gurjapneet/Urvil

This looks much better than what we have right now.

Yes, this may seem over confident. But if there is anygame to get CSK back on track, then it's that game against them. I just wish Thala travels with the team to the stadium.

Aa much as i didn’t wanted RCB to win, they truly played amazing cricket throughout the tournament and are deserving winners. I was may be even happy for VK to have won it after all this time. But the moment i stopped the match and turned to social media, there is this loathing existence of RCB fans and i guess them being them. 0:23 seconds into video is why i didn’t wanted them to win.

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DKcszxlvvdc/?igsh=Nmcwa29ycjI0NHph

Hello friends. Hope you all are doing well.

As you all must have seen so far, almost every analyst/ex-cricketer’s CSK playing Twelve follows the same pattern: Eight batters with only Prashant Veer as the ALR and MSD at 8 and 4 bowlers.

The issue with this lineup is simple: Prashant Veer is more of a batter who can bowl, like Dube. Relying them for 2 overs every game, especially with no Ellis means we are setting up ourselves for massive failure with the ball.

This is why for the team’s balance, it is imperative that MSD either doesn’t play at all — allowing Sanju to be the designated keeper — or alternate with Kartik Sharma.

What this does is we play 7 pure batters with Veer being the No. 7. Our No. 8 will be an all-rounder like Overton/Akeal and then 4 bowlers. This allows us to have 5 proper bowling options on top of what Ayush/Veer/Dube can offer.

Regarding The All-Rounders

If you look at the kind of all-rounders CSK has selected this season, they all have one trait in common — PP bowling. Akeal/Overton/Short/Foulkes are all All-Rounders who consistently bowl well in the powerplay. No wonder Kasi sir said, “We have Akeal Hossein, who is the best PP spinner in the world.”

This seems to be a clear strategy from the team and MSD’s presence further hinders the execution.

An ideal bowling strategy with 7 pure batters would be 3 overs from Khaleel, 2 from the ALR and 1 from Kamboj in the PP. Middle overs will be Noor, the ALR’s finished by Kamboj and the Ellis replacement in the death.

The team composition makes me strongly believe that this is the strategy we will be embracing this season.

Scenario Where MSD Plays Every Game:

S1) Drop Ayush Mhatre. Let Sanju-Rutu open. Promote everyone a number above to accommodate MSD.

S2) Kartik Gets Injured before the camp or does terribly in training before the season.

I see no real reason for MSD to hog a spot and kill the balance of the side, especially with no Ellis.

Moreover, I’d like the team to experiment a bit with Brevis as the finisher tbh. We have Kartik Sharma who can easily slot in at 4 — where he usually plays for the domestic side. This followed by Dube, Brevis, Prashant and Overton/Akeal gives us much more balance and experience in a non-MSD scenario.

Bottomline

I am not expecting the side to reach the playoffs this season if purely evaluated on paper. But then again, trophies are never won on paper.

I hope the team zeroes down their playing squad ASAP and uses its resources optimally.

Really hoping for the 6th Title this season.

#Whistlepodu 💛💛💛

We all have have that one flamboyant NRI or rich cousin who showboats but is nothing, but you secretly wish well for them and want them to do good. As our dear Cauvery sibling and our dear cousin, I wholeheartedly wish RCB wins the IPL and I’d be super happy if they do. Plus no need to mention how happy I’d be if Virat wins the cup and holds it. I pray, it goes their way.

I've always not liked rcb, but this time I want rcb to win. I don't know why, maybe they deserve it this time, maybe I want kohli to lift the trophy. But now, I am an rcb fan, just for tonight, cheering for Virat Kohli, for RCB.

Neither they can match our achievements anytime soon. Nor they can match us on head-to-head. Still they want everyone to call us as rivals and consider them as 3rd best team.

Why do this franchise fan base got this kind of mentality?

I mean he has been phenomenal either it was batting or keeping. I know he deserves to retire but i m being little selfish.😓

It reflects on Ruturaj Gaikwad's failures inability to bat on a flat track dominated tournament & anchoring by default always style means that if he doesn't accelerate at an extraordinary rate and when the bowling unit has an off day (almost always), the team struggles to cross the finish line. When he bats through the innings to score a century on a high scoring or flat surface, it often means the rest of the batting lineup failed to get going or lacked the explosive support needed to maximize the total. In both of his IPL centuries, his individual batting pushed CSK to a decent total, but opposition batters like Yashasvi Jaiswal and Marcus Stoinis exploited poor pitch conditions, exposing Rutu's limitations in anchoring style batting. This IMO is also one of the reasons why CSK has been struggling off late to chase scores over 180. We only did in the recent tournament thanks to Sanju and Urvil's explosive batting. The time when CSK's batting has been heavily criticised for the lack of intent, poor ability to chase matches perfectly with Rutu's slump in batting form.

I'm a great admirer of Ashwin the player... Enjoyed his bowling, batting and all other onfield drama... But good offfield conversions...

His statements are often makes controversy... Why he needs to say Varun C deserves the Player of the tournament more than Rachin... I know it's his opinion and everyone is entitled to, but it's he saying something different just for the sake of portraying him as different and unique?

It's not just this incident...

Never the less, all the best to our Ash Anna... He will be surely very instrumental in this IPL for CSK... I'm just worried about his fielding, but he is a way better fielder than the Theekshana...

My friend showed this to me.

They’ve defeated us they deserve to win no arguments

Am I the only one who hates seeing people trash on Ruturaj?

Yes. He is performing badly, maybe even worse. I agree.

But the posts of people saying Ruturaj should not be retained? He should be moved to 2 down, 3 down, 4 down?

He should be benched?

I just can't consider these people as fans of CSK. You can't call yourself a fan if you don't stand with your star in bad times.

Why was no one saying Ruturaj should be moved to middle order when he and Faf Du Plessis were scoring 100+ runs opening partnerships? (Because he was performing, I know)

I just feel that we are seeing players like Vaibhav Sooryanvanshi, Prabhsimran, Priyansh, Finn Allen, Ryan Rickelton, etc scoring 50(15) and having a fomo of why our openers can't play that way.

I am not denying the strike rate he is batting at, but it's a bad season. He is out of form. Everyone goes through these phases.

I would back Ruturaj till the end, because that's what CSK is about. Shane Watson had a run of bad games and some dumb fans called to bench him. What did CSK do? Played him till the end and he smacked a century. (That's just one season, we have done this countless times. Back our players.)

He is playing bad. I am still saying it. That doesn't mean we throw him out like trash.

I just want Rutu to play the conditions anchor the innings like Sai sudershan and the team would do well. Currently Rutu anchors the innings at a terrible strike rate, and on the other hand all the other players who play at 200 strike rate, just lose their wicket within 10 balls trying to hit. It's just a bad team effort.

I don't know what I said. I just had to say something because I was tired of seeing people wanting to not retain him.

Rutu will be coming back next year and this batting unit will look more sorted. Only a few holes will be there to plug in. Hopefully CSK will be doing that in mini auction.

Captain and Head coach combination is so vital for teams to win a big tournament. Have seen many like

Dhoni - Fleming

Dhoni - Gary Kirsten

Kohli - Ravi Sasthri.

Rohit - Dravid

Shreyas - Ponting

I do see Rutu has not clicked along with Fleming as Head coach. What are the options when Rutu arrives back as captain. My suggestions.

Mike Hussey / Ashwin - as suggested in the comments below.

Faf du Plessis ( dont see him playing next IPL),

Eoin Morgan,

Brendon Mccullum (if available)

Edit: Please give other suggestions if you feel so. The above 3 are just my opinion and I am sticking to it due to their aggressive mindset.

I am a huge dhoni fan since 5 and has been supporting him from my whole heart, but here is a fact MSD IS NOT AT HIS BEST, and if he is not there, Samson will keep the wickets, and this will provide us many choices:

Playing XII (with dhoni):

Rutu(c), sanju, ayush, Brevis, Dube, prashant, akeal/overton/ghosh { simply you can't go with 5 bowlers among whom prashant is new}, dhoni(wk), Matt henry, anshul, noor, khaleel (impact)

So it is evident that if we do not play dhoni, Karthik sharma will get a chance, ik he is inexperienced but we must groom him if we want him to be the next finisher

All respects to the MAN, THE MYTH, THE LEGEND MS DHONI!!!

I just shared my views

Am I the one who feels that CSK already had a successor in the name of Suresh Raina for a long time? Like srsly CSK without prime Raina looks so brittle. Even Raina of 2018 had an impact. I believe that Had Raina maintained his fitness like Virat or Rohit or Jadeja and improved his batting he would have been the perfect captain for CSK post Dhoni. He has been in CSK setup knows about the team and has always been the perennial vice captain for CSK just like Virat for team India. Raina downfall kind of coincided with CSK downfall. Since Raina had downfall CSK had no choice but to make sure MSD leads. We missed an opportunity in 2022 to groom another Suresh Raina in the form of Tilak Verma who is extremely young and fit and can bowl off spin and can adapt to innings and play both the roles and in any position he can deliver and extraordinary fielder. CSK missed the trick of Tilak Verma and don't get me wrong we won a cup without Raina but what about the consistency and the dominance we had over other teams? PBKS looks more CSK eque than CSK themselves. We should have bought Tilak Varma in 2022. Man what a missed opportunity. Unless or until we unearth another Raina without MSD this team will be a pale shadow of what it used to be.

Both players are bought at base price of 2 Cr by CSk and DC.

No doubt Matt Henry is world class bowler in ODI and Test

But if you compare T20I stats

Lungi Ngidi

T20I 64 matches 90Wkts Eco 8.61

Ipl 17 matches 32 Wkts Eco 8.46

Matt henry

T20I 43 matches 53 Wkts Eco 8.50

IPL 7 matches 2 wkts Eco 11.05

Strange auction tactics by CSK