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 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.