April 2, 2011—”Dhoni finishes it off in style…India lift the World Cup after 28 years.” Exactly 10 years from the World Cup victory, it is possibly the final time we will see captain MS Dhoni & his eternal partner in crime, Suresh Raina.
After a disappointing 2020 season, do MS Dhoni & Suresh Raina have one final memory for the fans?
7th. 6 wins, 8 losses. Loss of Suresh Raina & Harbhajan Singh before the tournament and never really in contention. The athletic Faf du Plessis & Ruturaj Gaikwad were the only positives.
Injury & COVID-19 News
Josh Hazlewood has pulled out of IPL 2021. The bio-bubble effect is taking a toll on players’.
Complete Chennai Super Kings Squad
Batsman: Ruturaj Gaikwad, Cheteshwar Pujara, Suresh Raina, Ambati Rayudu, C Hari Nishaanth, Narayan Jagadeesan,
WK: MS Dhoni, Robin Uthappa
All-Rounders: Krishnappa Gowtham, Ravindra Jadeja
Spinners: Ravisrinivasan Sai Kishore, Karn Sharma
Fast Medium: Shardul Thakur, Deepak Chahar, KM Asif, Harishankar Reddy, Bhagath Verma
Overseas: Moeen Ali, Dwayne Bravo, Sam Curran, Faf du Plessis, Imran Tahir, Lungi Ngidi, Mitchell Santner
Shardul Thakur – Since the historic India vs Australia series, Shardul Thakur has been India’s X-factor, taking crucial wickets in the middle overs. The highest wicket-taker in both the England T20Is & ODIs, he is one to watch out for.
Youngsters – Tamil Nadu won the Syed Mushtaq Ali this year with Hari Nishaanth, Jagadeesan, and S Rai Kishore. With Ruturaj’s coming of age in IPL 2020, these bunch will give CSK the much needed age balance.
Where Can Things Go Wrong For the Super Kings?
The lack of out and out pace – Thakur, Chahar, Sam Curran, & Dwayne Bravo are all smart bowlers, but none have pace to send shivers through the opposition batsmen. With 8/14 of CSKs games at historically high scoring venues of Mumbai & Bangalore, I am not sure if they have enough variation in their attack. Tahir, R Sai Kishore, Jadeja, Gowtham, Moeen Ali, Santner, Karn Sharma would be a dream attack in Chennai, but no home advantage in COVID induced era has thrown their plans off.
*Note: There is no home advantage in IPL 2021. Here is how “Home vs Away” is divided.
10 April: CSK vs DC (Mumbai)
16 April: PBKS vs CSK (Mumbai)
19 April: CSK vs RR (Mumbai)
21 April: KKR vs CSK (Mumbai)
25 April: CSK vs RCB (Mumbai)
28 April: CSK vs SRH (Delhi)
1 May: MI vs CSK (Delhi)
5 May: RR vs CSK (Delhi)
7 May: SRH vs CSK (Delhi)
9 May: CSK vs PBKS (Bangalore)
12 May: CSK vs KKR (Bangalore)
16 May: CSK vs MI (Bangalore)
21 May: DC vs CSK (Kolkata)
23 May: RCB vs CSK (Kolkata)
25 May: Qualifier 1 (Ahmedabad)
26 May: Eliminator (Ahmedabad)
28 May: Qualifier 2 (Ahmedabad)
30 May: Final (Ahmedabad)
Prediction
Return of Raina, addition of Uthappa/Pujara, & youngsters might bolster the lineup, but the lack of home advantage would be too much to cope with. If they can win a few of the first 5 matches in Mumbai, they should have a settled lineup in Delhi.
Game Plan: Simple. Win at least 3 out of the first 5. Otherwise out of the reckoning early.
Prediction
6th
Most Runs
Ambati Rayudu
Most Wickets
Shardul Thakur
Emerging Player
R Sai Kishore
Surprise Package
Robin Uthappa
X Factor
Shardul Thakur
Broken Cricket Dream
MS Dhoni, Imran Tahir retire forever?
Chennai Super Kings Preview Predictions
What do you think of the Chennai Super Kings Preview? Your First XI? Will they make the IPL 2021 qualifiers?
India Vs England Series Review. The most anticipated limited overs series of the year—#1 England vs #2 India.
Did the series live up to the hype? Not quite. Except the Sam Curran game, none of the games went down to the wire, but there were plenty of talking points regardless:
40 is the new 50 feat Jason Roy
Debutants Ishan Kishan, Suryakumar Yadav, Liam Livingstone, & Prasidh Krishna storm the international arena
Shardul Thakur is the new Liam Plunkett
The power game of Jonny Bairstow, Jos Buttler, & Ben Stokes is second to none
Here are the series stats, video highlights, winners & losers, and emerging players. Read till the end forWorld T20I Squad Predictionsand some Dinesh Karthik content.
Mark Wood – 5 wickets (best of 3/34, 21.80 average, 6.41 economy)
India Vs England Series 2021 – ODI Stats
The Highlights
India
The highest wicket-taker across both the ODIs & T20Is from both sides, Shardul Thakur has been a revelation over the last few months. After his match-winning contribution at the Gabba, he has contributed in almost every match, either as a power hitter down the order or with important wickets. Only fitting that Ajit Agarkar (with 288 wickets on his name) was on-commentary during some of Thakur’s spells.
India’s young brigade—Ishan Kishan began with a solid 56, Suryakumar Yadav 57 (with one-legged six for first shot), and Krunal Pandya scored India’s fastest debutant 50. The lanky Prasidh Krishna was my pick of the lot. Expensive in his first spells but came back with figures of 4/54 & 2/58. Great spirit! Add Shreyas Iyer’s stable performances, Shikhar Dhawan’s return to form in the ODIs, & Virat Kohli’s consistency, this Indian line up looks really solid. Even without Kohli’s elusive 71st ton.
The old Bhuvneshwar Kumar is back. Bhuvi’s economy of 4.65 in a high scoring series & KL Rahul’s 62* & 108 in the ODIs (after 0,0,1, 14 in the T20Is) hold well for India. Maybe KL in the middle order is the way to go with Kohli-Rohit opening in the T20Is.
Middle overs bowling is a concern for India. Since the break of Kuldeep-Chahal, neither have been convincing. Time for Kuldeep to go back to first class cricket or a county cricket stint. R Ashwin limited overs comeback?
Jonny Bairstow& Jason Roy were the reason behind England’s rise & 2019 WC victory, but both had questions over the place over the last few months.
Bairstow, the Test batsman, had scores of 0,0, 28 & 0.
Bairstow, the limited overs batsman, is something else. First full over – 2 sixes to Chahal. Regained confidence in the T20I and came to the fore in the ODIs with 94 & 124. Except for the ill-timed shot in the first ODI, good signs for England
Roy’s the new Root: 49, 46, 9, 40, 0, 46, 55, & 14. After a poor 2020, finally good to have the old Roy back, but needs to convert more often.
Mark Wood was my player of the series based on his commitment. The highest wicket taker for England in the ODIs, he bowled his heart out. In the last ODI, he was visibly under the weather but kept bowling at 141+ kph. To add the cherry to the cake, he stayed in the game in that 60 (61) partnership with Sam Curran.
Let us talk about the player who was not here (and no, I am not talking about Alex Hales, whose window for return may have opened). Liam Plunkett has been sorely missed since he was dumped post World Cup victory. Tom Curran & Chris Jordan have been expensive across both the formats, and Adil Rashid has only been successful in his new Powerplay position. England can definitely chase 350+, but without Plunkett, they are consistently giving away that many runs.
Sam Curran‘s 95* in the final game was the highlight of the series. The make things happen guy had not done much of note for the entire series, but showed his worth in the final ODI dismissing the dangerous Rishabh Pant and displaying his finishing game.
Oh and by the way, my tweet right before the Pant wicket. All he needed was this tweet. You’re welcome Sam Curran fans.
The Umpiring Anti-Award:Soft-signal (we know it is bad when this rule is dropped from the IPL). This rule received strong criticism after Suryakumar Yadav’s catch by Dawid Malan was deemed out on soft signal (although camera angles were inconclusive).
India
England
Emerging Players
Kohli-Rohit T20I opening
Ishan Kishan, Suryakumar Yadav, Prasidh Krishna
Liam Livingstone
Surprise Package
‘Intent’
Sam Curran, the finisher
Broken Cricket Dream
Shreyas Iyer, Kuldeep Yadav
Eoin Morgan (injured), Tom Curran & Chris Jordan’s economy rate
New Zealand tour England for two Tests in June followed by India Vs New Zealand for the World Test Championship final. Oh and if you did not have enough of watching these two teams, India tour England for 5 Tests in August-September.
