CHANDIGARH: The way the last one week has unravelled for the Chennai Super Kings, many a fan who sees only yellow during the IPL may very well be forced to think that Twitter had one-upped Paul the Octopus in exhibiting clairvoyance on January 27 and 28.
“Eleven 30-plus men; an uncle team,” many had raged after the Super Kings’ army was fully formed after the auction. “An injury or two, and we’ll be left scratching our heads,” ranted another section. All those premonitions started materialising from April 7 onwards.
Kedar Jadhav’s finishing touches to Chennai’s first heist against Mumbai Indians saw Murphy benevolently hand out a grade-2 hamstring injury to him, ruling him out of the event completely. That, and Faf du Plessis’ finger injury and Murali Vijay’s sore rib-cage, events that had already skewed the Super Kings’ plans even before they began their return in Mumbai.
Sam Billings may have metaphorically cauterised those wounds during their second match against the Kolkata Knight Riders, but the same match tore open another gash in the form of Suresh Raina picking up a calf injury, ruling him out for the next two games.
More than just missing the stalwart who has been ruled out, each absence has thrown a spanner into the machinations of MS Dhoni and his Yellow Brigade. But as their luck — or perhaps spunk — would have it, they still managed to traipse past the improbable-but-still-achievable tight-rope.
Without Du Plessis and Vijay, Ambati Rayudu was given the responsibility of being half the Yellow vanguard instead of bolstering their batting spine; an experiment which not many would have expected to pay good dividends (he had last opened in a T20 five years ago).
Without Jadhav, Billings was slotted in. Albeit a few rungs further than where he was expected to, he still managed to make a dent and a few more with his 23-ball, 56-run blitzkrieg. You, after all, expect a top-4 option (he has aggregated 1,627 runs at an average and strike-rate of 23.92 and 125.44 in these four slots) to not make an appearance as a three-down.
But then, Raina’s absence has opened up another Pandora’s Box of selectorial migraines for the Kings. There are question marks over the availability of Vijay and Du Plessis for the Super Kings’ next clash against Kings XI Punjab on Sunday.
So, if either of the two are available, will Chennai risk terminating their Rayudu gamble, by pushing him down the order to make space? Will they go ahead with Du Plessis, in turn weakening their already flailing pace options by ruling out Mark Wood or Lungi Ngidi? Will they bring in the uncapped likes of N Jagadeesan, Kshitiz Sharma, or Dhruv Shorey as their willow-wielding cavalry?
The “Mahi Way” has often been one that gives two hoots to logic but yet yields the best results. Sunday ought to serve as yet another litmus test for that.
rahul.ravi@newindianexpress.com