Chennai Super Kings in Indian Premier League (IPL)

Chennai is one of the largest cities in India and it is situated in South India. In fact, Chennai is the capital city of Tamil Nadu and its former name was Madras. In Indian Premier League (IPL), the name of club from Chennai is called Chennai Super Kings. The captain of the club is Mahendra Singh Dhoni and its coach is Kepler Wessels. The owner of the club is India Cements and they have paid $91 million for buying the club and they have the rights for the club for 10 years. The club has got Kris Srikkanth as a brand ambassador and it has also two South Indian actors and another actress as its brand ambassador. The home ground for Chennai Super Kings is MA Chidambaram Stadium.

Chennai Super Kings did not have any icon player but it became a blessing in disguise. In fact, Chennai Super Kings bought the most expensive player of Indian Premier League, Mahendra Singh Dhoni. Dhoni is the current captain of Indian ODI team and Twenty20 team and he has led the Indian Twenty20 team become the champion of 2007 Twenty20 world cup tournament. So, in Dhoni they have a lot of experience and youth. Dhoni is a very good and hard hitting batsman and he has also become a matured captain. Since Chennai Super Kings did not have any icon player they could also bid for another big player who is Muttiah Muralitharan.

They have got a number of descent batsmen in their line up. Mathew Hayden is a very strong player and he is from Australia. Mathew Hayden has impressive record in cricket. You should also think of Stephen Fleming is perhaps the best batsman for New Zealand in our time. Mathew Hayden is now 36 years old and he has a lot of experience too. Mathew Hayden has over six thousand ODI runs and over eight thousand test runs. This is enough to prove that he is a very experience player. Stephen Fleming was the captain of New Zealand and he left to New Zealand to some memorable wins in cricket. So, he can help Dhoni a lot with the captaincy matter. If Dhoni is injured or can come in forward and do his work. Among others specialist batsmen the only player that has caught my attention is Michael Hussey who is from Australia. So, I think that the batting line up of Chennai Super Kings is not that strong if Hayden, Fleming, Dhoni do bad in a match then the Chennai Super Kings will suffer a lot. However, the problem of batting line up can be solved with some all rounders. I have already talked about Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Dhoni is indeed perhaps the most successful wicketkeeper in form in world cricket today. There is also Parthiv Patel who also played for India and he is a good batsman too. You should not count out Jacob Oram who can bowl and bat almost equally. So, I think, Chennai Super Kings will not suffer in blowing that much. Muttiah Muralitharan is the best spin bowlers of any time and he has broken almost all the records in bowling. It will be interesting to see how Muttiah Muralitharan can do in Twenty20 cricket. In Twenty20 cricket most batsmen try to go after any bowling from the first over and Muttiah Muralitharan may find it some difficult to adjust. It should be noted here that Muttiah Muralitharan is not that successful in ODI cricket like he is in Test cricket. So, I am not exactly sure yet how Muttiah Muralitharan can be effective in Twenty20 cricket. However, you have to understand another thing that in Twenty20 cricket a lot will depend on the pitch and Indian pitch is always spin bowling friendly. So, Muttiah Muralitharan can get some benefit from the pitch. For Muttiah Muralitharan, there is also Makhaya Ntini. Makhaya Ntini is a fast bowler and he can be deadly if he gets some supports from the pitch.

Chennai Super Kings is going to start the tournament with the match against Kings XI Punjab on 19 April. The match will take place in Mohali. So, this is going to be an away match for the club. The good thing is that in the next matches Chennai Super Kings is going to play in their home ground. The opening match can become tough and tricky. The Punjab team is a tough team. It has some good players. Chennai Super Kings has MS Dhoni then Punjab Kings has Yuvraj Singh and Mahela Jayawardene. Yuvraj Singh is not far behind than MS Dhoni in ODI cricket. In fact, Yuvraj Singh is perhaps the more aggressive player in ODI cricket. He has the world record of quickest 50 in Twenty20 cricket.

The players and staffs of Chennai Super Kings are now busy with last minute’s preparation. The cricket fans of Tamil Nadu have put a lot of faith on players like Muralitharan and Dhoni. One exclusion will be Laxmipathy Balaji who is a local player. The bad news for the club is that Chennai Super Kings is going to miss two South African players. They are Makhaya Ntini and Albie Morkel. So, it will be a good blessing for local players who want to show their talent in Twenty20 cricket. Muttiah Muralitharan is now in Chennai and he is very happy. It should be noted here that Muttiah Muralitharan got married with a Tamil girl and that is why, he is the son-in-law of Chennai. Muttiah Muralitharan is a Tamil man from Sri Lanka and that is why, he is very popular in Tamil Nadu. I will not be surprised if hundreds of fans of Muralitharan go to see him in the stadium. Muralitharan has said that he is very happy and proud to play for Chennai Super Kings. He has also promised to give his best for the club.

For the first match, Chennai Super Kings has already announced its 17-member squad. I have already told you that Balaji has been omitted and in fact, he is not fit for the match and two substitute players will make the opening match. I am giving you the full list of 17 players here. Five foreign players have been included in this 17-member team. Stephen Fleming, Jacob Oram, Michael Hussey, Matthew Hayden and Muttiah Muralitharan- these are the five foreign players who are included in the 17-member squad of Chennai Super Kings. I think that in the first match these five foreign players will be the key for the club along with MS Dhoni. The Indian players are not that good and fans will be happy if they find some spirited performance from the local Indian players against Punjab. Ntini and Morkel of South Africa are going to mss the first match because they have domestic commitment in South Africa. They will also miss the second match. These two players will be surely missed in the opening two matches by Chennai Super Kings. In fact, IPL organizers wanted to get them in the opening matches but South African clubs did not agree to this matter. I found a report on television point.com that the IPL advertisement did not satisfy many fans of Chennai Super Kings. Many fans in Chennai have felt that this advertisement has insulted the men of Tamil Nadu. It has created huge controversy in the state. So, IPL authority should look into this matter and try to satisfy the fans of this club.

Foreign players have already started practicing with local players of Chennai Super Kings. This is a good thing. This shows that the foreign players in Chennai Super Kings are serious about cricket and they are not here only for money. If they practice well then they can play well and the cricket will be enjoyable.

Here I am giving you the schedule of Chennai Super Kings. I think that Chennai Super Kings is a strong team in Indian Premier League and they have some very good players. However, a lot depends on the performance of the foreign players. If the foreign players can play well then Chennai Super Kings will do very well in Indian premier league, otherwise they will suffer a lot in this season.

17-Member Squad of Chennai Super Kings:

Mahendra Singh Dhoni (Captain), Stephen Fleming Jacob Oram, Michael Hussey, Matthew Hayden, Muttiah Muralitharan, Suresh Raina, Parthiv Patel, Joginder Sharma, Vidyut Sivaramakrishnan, Anirudha Srikkanth, R Ashwin, P Amarnath, Shadab Jakati, Arun Karthik, S Badrinath and Manpreet

Schedule of Chennai Super Kings in Indian Premier League

Date	Participating Teams	Venue
19 April	Kings XI Punjab vs Chennai Super Kings	Mohali
23 April	Chennai Super Kings vs Mumbai Indians	Chennai
26 April	Chennai Super Kings vs Kolkata Knight Riders	Chennai
28 April	Bangalore Royal Challengers vs Chennai Super Kings	Bangalore
2 May	Chennai Super Kings vs Delhi DareDevils	Chennai
4 May	Rajasthan Royals vs Chennai Super Kings	Jaipur
6 May	Chennai Super Kings vs Deccan Chargers	Chennai
8 May	Delhi DareDevils vs Chennai Super Kings	Delhi
10 May	Chennai Super Kings vs Kings XI Punjab	Chennai
14 May	Mumbai Indians vs Chennai Super Kings	Mumbai
18 May	Kolkata Knight Riders vs Chennai Super Kings	Kolkata
21 May	Chennai Super Kings vs Bangalore Royal Challengers	Chennai
24 May	Chennai Super Kings vs Rajasthan Royals	Chennai
27 May	Deccan Chargers vs Chennai Super Kings	Hyderabad