In its 16th season, the Indian Premier League (IPL) is set to go as a full-fledged tournament for the first time after almost 4 years. After the 2019 season, this will be the first time that the pinnacle event will have the traditional home and away matches. With 10 teams in the tournament, the opening clash is between Chennai Super Kings (CSK) and Gujarat Titans (GT) on 31st March and the league stage is supposed to end on 21st May with the finals scheduled to be played on 28th May.
Chennai Super Kings
In what could be the last season for CSK’s ‘Thala’ MS Dhoni the team will look to go on to win the trophy. The squad looks well set to give the defending champions, GT a run for their money in the opening clash. CSK came into the auction looking for some key players with a healthy purse of more than 20 crores.
The highlight of the auction for CSK was picking up the star all-rounder Ben Stokes for Rs. 16.25 crores. With Ravindra Jadeja already in the squad, the addition of Stokes can make their batting and bowling department even more strong.
CSK will play 9 matches in the M.A. Chidambaram stadium commonly known as Chepauk which is usually slow and assists the spinner and batters who can play spin well. CSK has more than enough in the spinning department with Moeen Ali, Jadeja, Maheesh Theekshana and Mitchell Santner.
Probable XI
Ruturaj Gaikwad, Devon Conway, Moeen Ali, Ambati Rayudu, Ravindra Jadeja, Ben Stokes, MS Dhoni (C and WK), Shivam Dube, Deepak Chahar, Maheesh Theekshana, Mukesh Choudhary
This XI would be a good squad for the matches at the Chepauk. In case CSK looks to play an extra foreign pacer down the order they replace Theekshana with Wayne Parnell who can even a be handy pick with the bat down the order.
Season Predictions
With Dhoni at the helm and the all-rounder trio of Jadeja, Ali and Stokes CSK will look to go on to win the coveted trophy for the fifth time matching their arch-rivals Mumbai Indians.
Who do you think will be CSK’s MVP for the 2023 season?
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