IPL: 5 Players Chennai Super Kings (CSK) should release ahead of the next season

Chennai Super Kings, a team that has never failed to qualify for the playoffs. It is a team that has not tasted big defeats. Last year, CSK came back after a two-year ban and got together as a team with many experienced players. Most of them were over 30 but still, they went on to win the third IPL trophy. This year, they retained their majority of their players except for Mark Wood, Kanishk Seth, Kshitiz Sharma. After releasing these three players, they went on to buy two Indians in the IPL auction to add to their squad, in the form of Mohit Sharma and Ruturaj Gaikwad for 5 crores and 20 lakhs respectively. Many experts had said that they lack the firepower and bench strength to qualify for this year’s IPL playoffs, but MS Dhoni and Co showed why experience is more important than the form. Chennai ended up with 18 points in the points table, which puts them on the number two spot. CSK will now be facing the Mumbai Indians on the seventh of May at their home ground, M. A. Chidambaram Stadium, Chennai. This IPL season as almost ended and teams will now be focusing on their next mission, ‘IPL 2020’. Many squads will be chopped and changed according to their coach’s plans and strategies. Now, let us take a look at 5 Players CSK should release ahead of IPL 2020: 1. Ambati Rayudu Ambati Rayudu. (Photo Source: Twitter) The ex-Mumbai Indians player made a big turn of events for CSK last year when he was sent to open with Shane Watson. He scored a total of 602 runs with an average 43 and a staggering strike-rate of 150. He was also their leading run-getter, which caught the eyes of the selectors, to give him a trial at the international level again. There also he impressed everyone, by playing a major role at the number four spot. This season though, there has been a complete change of events. Ambati Rayudu has been playing some poor cricket. He has only managed to score 219 runs for his franchise. He averages only about twenty this year and has also hit his IPL, career-worst strike-rate of just 90, not even a run-a-ball. 2. Murali Vijay Murali Vijay. (Photo Source: Twitter) This player is known highly for skills to play Test cricket. He has done really well for India in the longest format. When it comes to the limited overs game he faces a few issues, mainly the low strike-rate. Murali Vijay, who is an opener has a strike-rate of only around 120 in his last five seasons. Being an opener mainly means exploiting the power-play and ensuring a proper energetic start for the team. Vijay lacks the explosive shots and is not seen as a T20 player. He has only played one game this season, taking 38 runs in it, with a strike-rate of just 108. This was also CSK’s lowest total of the season, 109. This shows why an opener is valued quite highly and how they pace the team’s total score. 3. Shardul Thakur Shardul Thakur. (Photo Source: Twitter) The 27-year-old, Right-arm medium-pacer came into the limelight at the 2017 IPL season. He played 12 matches and took 11 wickets with an economy of just above eight. This impressed many, and he was soon called to the Indian team. He then made his debut that year itself, against Sri Lanka. Shardul Thakur’s main weapon is the slower ball but, it seems that many batsmen have now found it easy to play and also to hit it out of the park. He seems to be lacking proper variations, which shows why he has been expensive for the past two seasons. He has gone for more than nine per over in the last two seasons and moreover, his death bowling has been quite poor. 4. Karn Sharma Karn Sharma. (Photo by Surjeet Yadav/IANS) Another bowler who has not done well is Karn Sharma. He has had a few good seasons with the ball but soon the players learned his bowling action and variations. He is a right arm leg break bowler, but if leg spinners do not execute their plans properly they can go for plenty of runs. Karn Sharma has certainly been disappointing in the last couple of seasons. He has not taken many wickets and his economy rate is not at all impressive. He has gone for nearly 9.5 RPO last season and this time around, exceeding more than 11. Chennai is also quite rich in their spin department with the likes of Imran Tahir, Harbhajan Singh, and Ravindra Jadeja. So, if CSK intent to keep a backup for these spinners they would rather go for a youngster so that he can learn from these greats. 5. Harbhajan Singh Chennai Super Kings. (Photo Source: Twitter) The 38-year-old has been one of the premium spin bowlers in IPL history and has nearly 150 wickets to his name. Nowadays, the stats suggest that the leg-spinners have more value and are the wicket-taking bowlers than the off-spinners. This is because batsmen now find difficulty in playing spin which goes away from them rather than the ball coming into them. This is the reason, many leg-spinners now have more value. Players like Rashid Khan and Imran Tahir gets more wickets and are seen dangerous by the batsmen. Off-spinners like Ravichandran Ashwin and Harbhajan Singh seems to be less threatening. In the last league game, Harbhajan Singh was taken on by KL Rahul, and he went for 57 runs in his four overs, with an economy of over 14. This was also his career-worst bowling figures in the IPL. Chennai Super Kings would surely look to refurbish their team next year and bring on more youngsters. So Harbhajan would also be bait for it since he is not getting any younger next year. ~Written by Jerin Varghese M

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IPL: 5 Players Chennai Super Kings (CSK) should release ahead of the next season

Chennai Super Kings would surely look to refurbish their team next year and bring on more youngsters.

3. Shardul Thakur

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