5 Greatest CSK Spinners Of All Time: The Chennai Super Kings is the second-most successful franchise in the IPL history having won 4 IPL titles so far – only 1 less than Mumbai Indians while playing two seasons fewer than MI.
MS Dhoni has remained their main man at the helm throughout the IPL and brought all the glory, including two Champions League trophies.
One of the biggest contributors to CSK’s success in the IPL has been their home advantage: the M. A. Chidambaram Stadium, also known as Chepauk, is the most spin-friendly venue of all IPL grounds, and this is something which Dhoni and CSK have made great use of in their home matches, making Chepauk their fortress. Wins at home in the league stage contributed heavily to them reaching the playoffs so many times.
CSK have had some of the best spinners in the world play for them.
Here are CSK’s 5 greatest spinners in the IPL:
Ravichandran Ashwin
The local Tamil Nadu lad, R Ashwin was CSK’s bowling backbone for many years. Ashwin was with CSK from 2008 to 2015 before moving to RPSG and then was snapped up by PBKS. He’s then played for DC and RR.
But he launched his white-ball career with CSK and is still their third-highest IPL wicket-taker of all-time, only behind Bravo and Jadeja. Ashwin took 90 wickets in 97 matches while maintaining a tight economy of 6.46 for CSK in the IPL. Ashwin gave the big breakthrough of Chris Gayle in the 2011 final.
Apart from CSK, Jadeja had played for 3 different teams, but his career in the IPL and for India shot up after he joined forces with MS Dhoni at CSK.
The left-hand spinner has been a crucial component of CSK’s success since 2013. In the IPL for CSK, Jadeja has taken 105 wickets at an economy of 7.53.
Sri Lankan legend Muttiah Muralitharan played in the first three IPL seasons with CSK and won the 2010 title. The off-spinner snapped 40 wickets in as many matches in the IPL for CSK with a frugal economy of only 6.3.
In the 2010 final, Muralitharan returned with match-winning figures of 1/17 in 4 overs, taking the wicket of JP Duminy.
CSK fans would remember Shadab Jakati, the left-arm spinner, from his heroics in the 2010 season: Jakati took 13 wickets in the 2010 season, including the most important wicket of Sachin Tendulkar in the final.
Overall, for CSK, where he spent 6 years from 2008 to 2013, Shadab Jakati took 45 wickets in 50 matches at a decent economy of 7.75.
South African leg-spinner Imran Tahir got to play for CSK late in his career, from 2018 to 2021, but he was still at his best and was running at his fastest after taking every wicket and won two titles with CSK in 2018 and 2021. He had a major role to play in the 2018 title-winning season and then in 2019 as well.
Overall, for CSK, Imran Tahir snared 35 wickets in 27 IPL matches in the yellow jersey.
