CHENNAI: As Chennai Super Kings’ captaincy transfer from MS Dhoni to Ruturaj Gaikwad remains the biggest talking point, a cracking contest awaits in the opening game of the 2024 Indian Premier League between the home team and Royal Challengers Bengaluru at the MA Chidambaram Stadium, Chennai on Friday.
The defending champions have an edge over RCB as they have an all-round side that has batting depth and variety in its attack. On the other hand, RCB is heavily dependent upon their batters to post good totals regularly. It all might come down to the contest between RCB batters and CSK bowling.
CSK has always managed its bowling resources well , thanks to Dhoni’s wisdom. Deepak Chahar, Tushar Deshpande, Simarjeet Singh and Mukesh Choudhary are all capable of delivering. Moeen Ali, Mustafizur Rahman and injured Matheesha Pathirana too are capable of troubling the best batters in the tournament, not to forget the experienced Ravindra Jadeja.
One area that CSK needs to improve is their death bowling. “It’s (death bowling) always an important aspect of the IPL, to be able to bowl well at the death. We did it very well last year, considering a lot of the main bowlers were injured. Through that, we were able to bring and develop some players through. So, right now, apart from Mustafizur who’s just coming back from injury, we’ve got a really healthy stable of fast bowlers to choose from and that’s one of our challenges. Last year, we were struggling to get players fit enough to play. This year, we’ve got some good decisions to make,” said Stephen Fleming, head coach of CSK.
“So, yeah, depth bowling is part of it, but I think the way the game has gone with the impact player, it almost feels like the whole 20 overs has got a depth aspect to it. So, defensive bowling will be certainly a key part of this tournament,” he added.
RCB will depend heavily upon Virat Kohli, Faf du Plessis and Glenn Maxwell and new recruit Cameron Green to put runs on the board and give some cushion for their bowlers to press for a win.
Although Kohli is coming after a paternal break he has the ability to straight away get back into form. “Virat is a class player. He has the experience to get into his groove once he starts playing as he knows his game well. He knows the process of how to get back to his best after a break,” said former Australian great Glenn McGrath.
So it all boils down to the teams that bats first, and puts runs on the board and applies pressure later on. Toss could be vital as the strip for the match on Friday looks good to bat upon.