(Part 1) CSK: New dawn with old players

Today, we are going to unfold CSK’s auction buys, analyse them, and present the most probable scenarios. This will be a two-part series, and the second article will be coming shortly.

Chennai Super Kings, the five-time champions of the Indian Premier League, once again has gathered a strong core for the next season. The team has reassembled many former CSKians, which the fans are excited about. A big theme from the IPL auction for CSK was spinners. The team has spent heavily on the spinners with multiple multi-crore purchases. Dhoni’s guidance is going to give an extra edge to the team.
Backing the core

CSK has a long history of sticking with its players and not changing much every season. This year was no different, they retained MS Dhoni, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Ravindra Jadeja, Shivam Dubey and bowler Matheesha Pathirana. But this year, the retention of former captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni was a bit different and interesting. On a special request by CSK management, the BCCI has come up with a new rule where Dhoni can be classified as an uncapped player making the retention cost just 4 crores which saved at least 10 to 12 crore for them. Former player Ravi Ashwin's inclusion also looks interesting since he has played for CSK for more than 5 years.

Leadership 

The team will be led by the young Ruturaj Gaikwad, he became the team's captain last year and with Dhoni's guidance and support in and out of the field, it will be a big support for him. There are also rumours that this will be the last season of the MSD, it will be interesting to see how he leads this season as he will not be having MSD’s support from next year.

Spinner's dominance at the Chepauk

With CSK’s large investment into the spin-dominated bowling attack, one thing is sure there will be spin-friendly pitches at the Chepauk Cricket Stadium in Chennai. CSK bought Afghanistani spin bowler Noor Ahmed for Rs. 10 crore. Along with him CSK also bought Ravichandran Ashwin at a similar price of Rs. 9.75 crore making the way for him to return to Chennai’s squad after 10 years. Spending 19.75 crore on these two bowlers alone had sent the clear and loud message that the other teams’ batters should come better prepared for the spinners because the pitches will be very rough. 
With the trio of Ravi Ashwin, and Noor Ahmed and already retained all-rounder world-class spinner Ravindra Jadeja, now they have the best spinner core in the league. The spinners list doesn't end here; they also added leg-spinner Shreyas Gopal and Rahul Chahar.

The Formidable batting lineup

With the captain Rituraj Gaikwad at the top, for his support, the team has retained New Zealand's Devon Convoy(₹6.25 Cr) and Rachin Ravindra(₹4 crore) using RTM card at the auction. The team has also bought batter Rahul Tripathi for the middle-order role. This depth ensures CSK can adapt to various match situations, similar to their successful campaigns in the past.

In the next article, we will discuss other things like the bowling lineup, strong all-rounder group and Playing 11.