Astute tactician in Mahendra Singh Dhoni will dig deep into his reserves to counter Indian cricket’s new ‘Crown Prince’ Shubman Gill as four-time champion Chennai Super Kings will meet their match in current title holder Gujarat Titans in Qualifier-1 of the IPL in Chennai on Tuesday. Gill, who almost single-handedly knocked out a star-studded Royal Challengers Bangalore with a century ahead of the watch, has eclipsed Virat Kohli and is sure to force one of India’s greatest captains to go back to the drawing board and make plans for him .
Gill is in the middle of a dream season and what will be Dhoni’s tactical trick to stop the dashing ‘Mohali Marauder’ is there to be seen.
This season, Gujarat Titans have not played at the Chepauk, which did not behave in a particular way during CSK’s seven home games, leading head coach Stephen Fleming to worry about what to expect.
What makes this battle even more interesting is the fact that GT is the closest team to prototyping what CSK had been in IPL all these years.
A solid management and administrative team that stays in the background and never interferes in cricket affairs, which is left to the trio of Ashish Nehra, Gary Kirsten and Vikram Solanki.
A captain, who swears that his understanding of leadership has been cut from Dhoni’s ‘captain’s clothes’, and head coach Nehra, who, like his former teammate, doesn’t believe in too many changes, even if a few games go wrong.
They don’t rank players based on their auction value – remember CSK Krishnappa bought Gowtham for almost Rs 10 crore and he got a single game because he didn’t fit the combination.
Similarly, GT has current India T20 pacemaker Shivam Mavi on its roster for a whopping Rs 6 crore, but the team management has favored veteran Mohit Sharma who executes the slower deliveries beautifully. It’s about who fits what role. So it gets more interesting when two teams with similar philosophy go head to head.
The teams that don’t make long term promises that are hard to keep, but focus on the immediate process and know the player roles required for slots.
It will be a challenge for Gujarat to deal with the slowness of the Chepauk course and how well they handle Deepak Chahar’s power play overs and Matheesha Pathirana’s swings at the back will determine the outcome of the match.
And in this, Pandya and Nehra will find Sri Lanka skipper Dasun Shanaka’s input useful as he has covered both Pathirana and spinner Maheesh Theekshana for the national team.
While Shanaka may be used more as an all-rounder, depending on the throw, Titans can also try out the left arm spinner R Sai Kishore, who knows these conditions well.
There is a chance that Irishman Joshua Little will be back in playing XI instead of Shanaka and Sai Kishore will replace Yash Dayal who is yet to regain his confidence after the five sixes attack on him by his state mate Rinku Singh.
A good start from the crack pair Devon Conway and Ruturaj Gaikwad will be important for CSK. But with the Chepauk, even Ajinkya Rahane could become a factor, while Shivam Dube is eager to expand his 33 sixes for this season.
Conway and Gaikwad have provided a solid and substantial start for CSK, the middle order hasn’t really taken off yet. With GT bowling led by Mohammed Shami and Rashid Khan (24 wickets each so far) it won’t be easy for the home side’s batters including Conway and Gaikwad.
How the CSK opening duo handles the ruthless Shami could be vital and it would be important for the underachieving middle class to step up in a crunch game.
The fields at Chepauk have been up and down a bit so far, with a few being slow in nature while some have been good for stocking. CSK head coach Fleming said the same thing after the victory over Delhi Capitals, claiming that the team is unsure about the conditions (at home).
If a slow roll is rolled out before the game, the spinners on the two teams would have a big part to play. If CSK has Ravindra Jadeja, Moeen Ali and Theekshana, the Titans can boast a lineup that includes Rashid and Noor Ahmad.
Chennai Super Kings:MS Dhoni (c/wk), Akash Singh, Moeen Ali, Bhagath Varma, Deepak Chahar, Devon Conway, Tushar Deshpande, Shivam Dube, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Rajvardhan Hangargekar, Ravindra Jadeja, Sisanda Magala, Ajay Mandal, Matheesha Pathirana, Dwaine Pretorius, Ajinkya Rahane, Shaik Rasheed, Ambati Rayudu, Mitchell Santner, Subhranshu Senapati, Simarjeet Singh, Nishant Sindhu, Prashant Solanki, Maheesh Theekshana.
Gujarat Titans:Hardik Pandya (c), Shubman Gill, David Miller, Abhinav Manohar, Sai Sudharsan, Wriddhiman Saha, Matthew Wade, Rashid Khan, Rahul Tewatia, Vijay Shankar, Mohammed Shami, Alzarri Joseph, Yash Dayal, Pradeep Sangwan, Darshan Nalkande, Jayant Yadav , R. Sai Kishore, Noor Ahmad, Dasun Shanaka, Odean Smith, KS Bharat, Shivam Mavi, Urvil Patel, Joshua Little and Mohit Sharma.
(This story has not been edited by DailyExpertNews staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
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