IPL 2021: SWOT Analysis of Chennai Superkings

One of the most successful teams in IPL history, Chennai Superkings had their worst season last year. With Suresh Raina and Harbhajan Singh pulling out of the tournament held in the UAE during the autumn of 2020, they had a pretty difficult time balancing their playing XI. In between, Dwayne Bravo also got injured which further complicated matters for them.

They had believed in having consistency in their squad but none of their senior players were getting younger and that showed in their performances. 

The core team of Chennai Superkings is still intact and this is what I think is their best playing XI this year. Remember, Shane Watson has retired from all forms of cricket but Suresh Raina is back in the team this year.

My best playing XI for CSK:

Ruturaj Gaikwad

Robin Uthappa

Suresh Raina

Faf Du Plessis

MS Dhoni

Dwayne Bravo

Ravindra Jadeja

Sam Curran

Shardul Thakur

Deepak Chahar

Imran Tahir

SWOT Analysis:

Strength: A long batting lineup is one of their strengths. They bat very deep and so you can expect a very positive start from their top order in all their matches. Another big strength of this team is the number of all-rounders that they possess. 7 players in this XI can bowl and that’s a luxury not all teams have in this competition. Having MS Dhoni as the captain is of course the biggest strength that the team has. Their bench strength is not bad and they have like-for-like replacements in most of the departments.

Weakness: Age is not on the right side of this team. Many players in this squad have long retired from International cricket. It was a problem for CSK in 2020 and it still remains a problem. T20 is a young man’s game and this is where this team comes short. This is an area they will have to look into next year when they will get an opportunity to reshuffle the entire squad. They will have quite a few slow movers in the field and it would be pretty difficult to hide slow-moving fielders in such a high-paced game of T20. This would put more pressure on their batting unit to score at least 15 runs more keeping this problem in mind.

Opportunity: Big opportunity for Ruturaj Gaikwad. He showed his class in the last 2 matches in 2020 and I hope to see him continue that in 2021 too. He has been on the Indian radar over the last couple of years and this IPL could be his breakout year. An opportunity for Suresh Raina too to show the world that he is not a spent force yet. I also look forward to seeing Ravindra Jadeja back in action who had been on the sidelines for the last couple of months due to the injury suffered during the Sydney test match.

Threats: Injuries can play a big role in this team mainly because many of the team members have not been playing competitive cricket for many months. Though they have like for like replacements on the bench, it would be difficult for new players to come in and perform straight away. IPL has been the grooming ground for many up-and-coming cricketers and that has spurred many individuals to give superlative performances for their respective teams. But a team which is filled with retired cricketers, I am not sure what motivation level they would have to put up a grand show.

Overall on paper, this team looks good especially in their all-round abilities and the bench strength that they possess but I feel they will struggle this year too because of the lack of match practise of many of their players. IPL is a very high-intensity tournament and it will be played in peak summer and hence players who have retired from international cricket might feel the heat as the tournament goes on.

They will hope that their younger players play exceedingly well on a consistent basis and that’s the only way I see them making a difference in 2021. Another thing I hope they do is to try the younger players early on rather than playing them at the fag end. If any experimentation is needed then do it in the first 3-4 matches. 

What do you think? Will CSK do better than last year? Will they reach the playoffs?

Please do share your thoughts. I am all ears.

Tomorrow I will be back with the SWOT analysis of another IPL team – a team who changed their name this year – from Kings XI Punjab to Punjab Kings.

Till then, have a great day ahead!

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