IPL 2018: Five possible replacements for Mitchell Santner

Chennai Super Kings is making a comeback into the Indian Premier League (IPL) after a two-year ban. The franchise and the fans seem to be very excited for the comeback season. After retaining MS Dhoni, Suresh Raina, and Ravindra Jadeja, the franchise fared decently well in the auctions. They have opted for an experience rather than having some youthful flavor in the team. The franchise will hope to make a mark this year in the IPL. However, just ahead of the season, the franchise is hit with a bad news. Their key player, Mitchell Santner will miss this year’s season due to a knee injury. Furthermore, he will be out of action for the next nine months. This is a huge blow for CSK as he was in some great form of late. They would have hoped that he could complement Dhoni as the finisher in the team. Also, the franchise is now looking for capable players who could replace Mitchell Santner in the team. With a very few spin bowling all-rounders available, the franchise will now have to explore all the other options that they have. Here is the list of players who could replace Mitchell Santner 1. Junior Dala Junior Dala of South Africa celebrates after dismissing Indian captain Virat Kohli. (Photo by Sydney Seshibedi/Gallo Images/Getty Images) Junior Dala has grabbed everyone’s eyeballs in the T20I series against India. He looked very promising with his bowling. He hit some good pace and bowled some brutal short deliveries. Furthermore, he picked up the wickets of some big scalps in the Indian team including the likes of Rohit Sharma, Suresh Raina, and Virat Kohli. He sent Virat Kohli back into the hut only for a single digit score for the first time in the tour. Although Dala was on the expensive side, he bowled attacking lines and picked wickets in all the games. The 28-year-old is new to international cricket and promises to get a lot better with the time to come. In the three games that he played, he picked 7 wickets at an average of 15.71 and an economy rate of 9.17. He could be the ideal replacement for Santner and could be useful at the top and in the death overs. 2. Kusal Perera Kusal Perera plays a shot. (Photo Source: Getty Images) Kusal Perera is a strong contender for the place. He has impressed one and all with his performances in the Nidahas Trophy. He is a much more matured batsman now and likes to take up the responsibility. Furthermore, he is one of the leading run-scorers in the Nidahas Trophy. Kusal can take the game away from the opposition in the powerplay overs and has the capability to hit the ball long. With Brendon McCullum not in the best of forms, Perera could turn out to be a handy replacement for him in the playing XI. Kusal has vast experience in T20s and has scored close to 1000 runs in just 33 T20Is. As CSK failed to pick a young, free-flowing batsman in the auction, Kusal could prove to be a great addition to their squad. 3. Moises Henriques Moises Henriques of Sunrisers Hyderabad. (Photo: Twitter) Moises Henriques was one of the top-performers for the Sunrisers Hyderabad last season. Although his overall IPL career numbers are not as impressive, the last year’s IPL was a revelation for him. He was chosen ahead of Ben Cutting in the team and has not let the management down. Henriques scored 277 runs in the 12 games that he played at an average over 46. He played both the defensive and aggressive games for the Sunrisers and played a vital role at the No.3 position. Given that they have a really strong bowling line-up, the Sunrisers didn’t use his services much. He only managed to pick one wicket. Moises is a very matured player and a reliable all-rounder. He hits the ball long and aptly fits into the role of Mitchell Santner. He plays the big shots and is more than handy with the ball. 4. Ross Taylor New Zealand batsman Ross Taylor celebrates his century. (Photo by Stu Forster/Getty Images) The franchises hardly showed any interest in Ross Taylor when his name came up in the auctions. Taylor hasn’t had the best of times in the IPL in the last few seasons and he was also ignored in the earlier seasons by the franchises. But, in the recent times, he has shown some great form with the bat. Recently, he scored an unbeaten 181 off 147 balls and grabbed all the attention. Taylor has scored over 1,400 runs in T20 Internationals at a strike rate of 121. He could play the anchor role in the CSK middle-order and can ensure that he holds on end tight. Ross adds some great value to any team that he plays in and also brings in a sense of calmness. He could take up a role similar to the one of Kane Williamson with the Sunrisers Hyderabad. However, it would be interesting to see if CSK will opt for Ross Taylor given that he isn’t playing much of T20I cricket for New Zealand in the recent times. 5. Ish Sodhi New Zealand’s Ish Sodhi. (Photo credit PRAKASH SINGH/AFP/Getty Images) The India-born New Zealand leg-spinner Ish Sodhi currently ranks second in the ICC T20I Bowling Rankings. Furthermore, he was atop of this list at the time of the auction. However, the franchises showed the least interest in him and he was left unsold in the auction. There were various questions raised regarding this issue and he would have been very disappointed after not being brought. But, Ish Sodhi has a golden opportunity in front of him in case CSK decides to rope him in. He could prove all other franchises wrong with his performances and would be hoping that he’ll be picked. But yet again, this will be a very interesting choice. Given that CSK has two high-quality leg spinners in the form of Imran Tahir and Karn Sharma, it would be interesting to see if they would incline towards Ish Sodhi ahead of all the other options.

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IPL 2018: Five possible replacements for Mitchell Santner

Who will be the best person to fill in the shoes of Mitchell Santner?

3. Moises Henriques

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