CHENNAI: Three days ahead of their Indian Premier League (IPL) opener against Kolkata Knight Riders, Chennai Super Kings are caught in a combination deadlock. If the unavailability of Deepak Chahar because of an injury was bound to weaken their attack and affect the composition of the four overseas players, the delay in Moeen Ali's arrival has added to the headache.
The English all-rounder, one of Chennai's stand-out performers in their title-winning campaign last season, is yet to join the team because he hasn't been issued a visa yet. It is understood that a detailed verification is currently underway, which is taking more than the usual time.
"We were expecting Moeen to join us by Monday but because of the delay in issuing a visa, it is not clear when he will leave for Mumbai. He submitted the visa application on February 28, but because of the verification process, there has been a delay. Unless he enters the bubble by Wednesday noon, it won't be possible for him to play against Kolkata," CSK CEO Kasi Viswanathan told The New Indian Express.
If Ali doesn't arrive in time, it will be interesting to see how Chennai go about their combination. Last season, batting at No 3, he provided them with some much-needed aggression in the middle overs, an area that proved to be their biggest undoing in the 2020 season. Though his absence is expected only for the game against Kolkata, it gives Chennai an option to try their other overseas picks.
The unavailability of Chahar for at least the first half of the tournament means they need to strengthen their fast bowling resources and as a result, apart from Dwayne Bravo, Adam Milne looks certain to be in the XI. The Kiwi's pace can be handy in the powerplay as well as in the end overs. Fellow New Zealander Devon Conway is expected to open alongside Ruturaj Gaikwad. Ali's absence also opens the door for Robin Uthappa to slot in at No 3.
The toss-up for the remaining one overseas slot would be between Chris Jordan and Maheesh Theekshana. With Ali unavailable, mystery spinner Theekshana could be a handy option at the Wankhede should MS Dhoni prefer a tweaker to bowl in the powerplay. In that case, one among Tushar Deshpande, KM Asif and Rajvardhan Hangargekar will get a chance. That would give Dhoni four seam bowling options in Bravo, Milne, Shivam Dube and one of the above-mentioned trio with Ravindra Jadeja and Theekshana as spinners.
However, if Chennai wish to strengthen their pace resources further by including Jordan in place of Theekshana, then the highly-rated leg-spinner Prashant Solanki could make his IPL debut.
Last season, one of Chennai's biggest strengths was its batting depth. It allowed the batters to adopt a more aggressive approach. The end result was that they were amongst the highest-scoring teams in the middle-overs, something they will be keen to replicate this season too.