Find Out Why CSK Is NOT The Strongest Team In IPL 2023: The Chennai Super Kings finished 9th in the 10-team IPL 2022 tournament. They made a few changes in their squad between IPL 2022 and IPL 2023, releasing some players and buying a few in the IPL 2023 auction.
The biggest loss for them was the retirement of Dwayne Bravo from the Indian Premier League – the all-time leading wicket-taker in the Indian Premier League currently, while they gained the services of the England Test captain and one of the leading all-rounders in the world: Ben Stokes.
Chennai Super Kings will want to come out of the harsh memories of their Indian Premier League 2022 campaign, where not only they floundered on the field, but uncharacteristically has issued behind the scenes: Dhoni gave Ravindra Jadeja the captaincy ahead of the start of the IPL 2022 season, but after 6 losses in 8 matches, Jadeja, as the franchise said, decided to hand back the captaincy duties to MS Dhoni.
While that didn’t really made much change to their fortunes, it brought a feeling of stability in the leadership department of CSK. Then Dhoni himself hinted that the Indian Premier League 2023 – where he and Chennai Super Kings will be back to playing at Chepauk – will be his last season as a player. These are two major motivations for Chennai based club to do well in this year’s IPL: the last season of MS Dhoni and playing in front of their home crowd.
However, even the most ardent of the Chennai Super Kings supporters would concede that their squad is far from being complete in all aspects; that Chennai Super Kings still have distance to cover in terms of strength with other franchises’ squads, and that Chennai based franchise are certainly not the strongest T20 unit in the Indian Premier League 2023.
To start off there isn’t anyone really known to have the kind of death-0vers specialty as Dwayne Bravo has.
The two overseas all-rounders Chennai Super Kings have – Ben Stokes and Dwaine Pretorius – are not really like-for-like replacements for Bravo: Stokes rarely plays T20 cricket and when he does he hasn’t bowled in the death overs; Pretorius has been impressive on occasions with his use of variations of slower balls, but is far from being a bankable death bowler and might not even get a place in Chennai’s first XI.
Then there’s the matter of lack of power-hitters among Indian batters. Robin Uthappa, their enforcer in the middle-overs, is also retired now and Chennai Super Kings bought Ajinkya Rahane to replace him. Rahane brings vast experience with him, but that of anchoring an innings and has barely played attacking cricket in the powerplay in the last few years in the Indian Premier League
Partnering him as an opener with Ruturaj Gaikwad makes two openers with similar tempo, and that would mean CSK fail to utilize the powerplay restrictions.
Moeen Ali’s form with the bat has been down in the past year and so has Ambati Rayudu’s.
Can Ben Stokes lift CSK to their 5th Indian League title in IPL 2023?
MS Dhoni doesn’t play domestic cricket anymore and will be out of high-level match practice when he enters the Indian Premier League 2023, aged 41. Dhoni himself had pushed himself lower down the order and is unlikely to make a huge impact with the bat for Chennai Super Kings, leaving Ben Stokes to do the heavy lifting. Even the England Test captain hasn’t played any T20 cricket since last year’s T20 World Cup.
Devon Conway and Mitchell Santner are in form but both aren’t guaranteed of a place in the first XI.
Coming to their bowling, Ravindra Jadeja remains a tidy bowler but not really a consistent wicket-taker in white-ball cricket, while Deepak Chahar is coming off another lengthy injury layoff. Their two young Indian pacers who impressed last season – Mukesh Choudhary and Simarjeet Singh – are still young and inexperienced at the highest level and so is Matheesha Pathirana, the Sri Lankan Malinga clone.
At the moment, it feels Maheesh Theekshana is the best T20 player in the Chennai Super Kings heading into the IPL 2023.
