IPL 2020: The ideal bowling combination for Chennai Super Kings

The three-time Indian Premier League champions Chennai Super Kings are all set for the 13th edition of the highly-anticipated tournament. Under the leadership of MS Dhoni, CSK have been a force to reckon with and Stephen Fleming would be hoping that their dominance will continue this year.

During the IPL 2020 auctions, CSK signed just four players namely Josh Hazlewood, Piyush Chawla, Sai Kishore, and Sam Curran, which tells you that the franchise wasn't interested in an overhaul and why would they be? All the above-mentioned players are additions to the bowling department which has seemingly triggered a debate about who should be in CSK's ideal bowling combination. In this article, we discuss the same.

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#3 All-rounders: Ravindra Jadeja, Sam Curran, and Dwayne Bravo

Deepak Chahar and Dwayne Bravo celebrating

This is certainly debatable and one would think that MS Dhoni might vary his selection of all-rounders according to the conditions on hand. But if one wants to select an ideal combination, then it would certainly contain both Dwayne Bravo and Sam Curran as they can not only bowl at any point in an innings but also add considerable depth to the CSK playing XI.

Also see – IPL 2020 schedule

Both of them are also brilliant fielders, which makes them three-dimensional cricketers and one doesn't need to mention that these are the kinds of players Dhoni likes to have in his team.

Ravindra Jadeja will be the ever-present cog in the CSK unit, with his left-arm spin adding bowling depth, in addition to his batting during the death overs and extraordinary fielding skills.

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#2 Frontline spinners: Imran Tahir and Harbhajan Singh

Harbhajan Singh was great last season

The Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai is known for producing dustbowls that turn the ball a long way. Hence, for most of the season, we might see three spinners in the CSK playing XI and two of them should be Harbhajan Singh and Imran Tahir, who were absolutely brilliant last year.

Both of them bring something different to the fore. While Harbhajan bowls economical spells, Tahir is a wicket-taker who pounces on the pressure created by both Harbhajan and Jadeja, for that matter. It is safe to say that Dhoni wouldn't like to change a tried and trusted combination.

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#1 Frontline seamers: Deepak Chahar and Shardul Thakur

Thakur will have to step up

If Sam Curran and Dwayne Bravo will indeed play in the CSK starting XI, then we will most likely see two frontline seamers, namely Deepak Chahar and Shardul Thakur.

Both of them will have their tasks cut out as Chahar will most probably bowl most of his overs in the powerplay, while Thakur might be used anywhere the situation demands. We could also see Chahar used in the death overs with Dwayne Bravo, as that is something we saw last year. However, with the recent rise of Thakur as a death bowler for the Indian limited-overs team, we could very well see him getting the nod to replicate the same duties.