IPL 2018: Strengths and weaknesses of each of the 8 franchises

Chennai Super Kings

CSK have won the IPL twice in 2010 and in 2011

Strengths: Chennai Super Kings have retained the core of their 2015 team with the likes of MS Dhoni, Suresh Raina, Faf du Plessis, Dwayne Bravo, and Ravindra Jadeja being retained. CSK's success has always been due to the brilliant team environment and with the core being the same the team environment too would be great this year.

Experience is the biggest plus of the present Chennai side. They have a strong batting line-up and have an oversized spin attack with the likes of Jadeja, Imran Tahir, Harbhajan Sigh, Mitchell Santner, and Karn Sharma.

Weaknesses: The pace bowling department would be the biggest cause of concern for Dhoni this year. They have inexperienced pace bowlers in Lungi Ngidi and Mark Wood. They have Shardul Thakur, KM Asif, and Deepak Chahar as the Indian seamers. The pace attack is extremely inexperienced and untested at this level