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Follow UsThe Chennai Super Kings have now been smashed for over 200 runs in consecutive games. In the vast history of the Indian Premier League - spanned across 16 seasons and exactly 1000 games now - it has happened only once before. You will have to go all the way back to the inaugural season.
In their first two games in 2008, CSK conceded 207 and 202 respectively. They won both those games owing to superior batting performances. Fast forward to 2023, CSK have suffered back to back losses for the first time this season.
The comparison between the two years isn’t fair. You can cut some slack for the current CSK attack due to various reasons. The average scores in T20 cricket have escalated significantly. The Impact Player rule this year has made batting line-ups longer.
While these two elements concern all the 10 sides, there is one factor exclusive to CSK alone. In the build-up of the season, they were perceived to be the weakest bowling side on paper.
Collectively, their pace attack holds the experience of only 60 T20 internationals (not counting Ben Stokes here). Their spearhead, Deepak Chahar, was injury prone and hasn’t played since their third game of the season. They lost Kyle Jamieson and Mukesh Choudhary to injuries. The latter had a strong debut season last year. Stokes was reported to skip the bowling duties in the first half.
The spin attack appeared stable with the presence of Ravindra Jadeja, Maheesh Theekshana, Moeen Ali and Mitchell Santner. But the pace bowling was supposed to be CSK’s Achilles heel.
The only hope was the MS Dhoni factor. In the past, he has brought the best out of Chahar, Choudhary, Mohit Sharma and a few more. His success with the lesser known names has framed the CSK philosophy - leave the bowling plans to MSD, irrespective of the resources available.
The first half of the season felt the same. The inexperience in the pace attack should have crashed their death bowling numbers. However, at the midway mark in the league phase, CSK had the second-best death overs economy.
For instance, CSK should have lost their away game to Royal Challengers Bangalore. Between Tushar Deshpande, Aakash Singh and Matheesha Pathirana, their pace attack had only one international cap. Faf du Plessis and Glenn Maxwell hammered 126 runs in the second wicket stand off only 61 balls. But with astute planning, the pacers clinched an 8-run victory in a high-scoring contest.
This defense was the first indication of the Dhoni Magic at work again. The spinners had won a couple of games before but it was the first time the pacers played an equally relevant part.
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It was CSK’s fifth match of the season. It was always going to be interesting to see how they arrange their pace attack. It took them five games.
They started with the trio of Chahar, Deshpande and Rajvardhan Hangargekar in their season opener. Stokes rolled his arm for one over in the second fixture.
Stokes has not played since. Sisanda Magala came in as the third seamer in the third match. Dwaine Pretorius was also added as CSK went with an extra seam bowling option for the conditions in Mumbai.
Chahar broke down in this fixture to a hamstring injury. Magala also suffered a split webbing in his second match. Pathirana came in as a replacement in the fifth game, the RCB fixture mentioned above.
Thus, CSK tried six pacers in the first five games. Most of these changes were owing to injuries. Hangargekar was dropped after the first two games. Surprisingly, they have not shown much interest in Pretorius. Alongside being an all-rounder, he is also their most experienced T20 bowler.
In the spin department, Theekshana joined the squad for the fourth match, replacing Mitchell Santner who played the first three games. Jadeja and Moeen have played nearly all the games.
After constant changes to begin with, CSK have not altered their bowling personnel in the last five matches. They settled down on a plan - Akash, Deshpande, Pathirana as three pacers and Theekshana, Jadeja, Moeen as three spinners.
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Deshpande is the only pacer to play all these nine games. He has a strange record. The 27-year old is the Purple Cap holder at this point with 17 wickets. But check this: among the 32 pacers who have picked five wickets or more in IPL 2023, his economy of 11.4 runs per over is the worst.
Seven times in nine matches, he has gone at an economy above 10. There is an innocuous pattern in his bowling. He will start the over poorly and then hit back with a wicket. Against Mumbai Indians, Deshpande went ‘4 6 4’ against Tim David before claiming his wicket. Against Kolkata Knight Riders, Jason Roy smoked two boundaries off him before losing his wicket. Against Punjab, Livingstone scored ‘6 6 4lb 6’ before getting out to him on the subsequent delivery.
It will be interesting to know how CSK assess Deshpande. At present, they seem fine with him shelling runs as long as it brings wickets. Interestingly, Deshpande has bowled only two of his 34 overs this season during the middle-overs phase.
Meanwhile, Akash Singh has been used as a powerplay specialist. He has bowled 15 of his 19 overs in the powerplay. However, he has only three wickets in this phase and has gone at an economy of 9.6.
Pathirana has been the brightest spot in their pace attack. He has bowled 12 overs at the death and eight during the middle-overs. His death overs’ economy of 8.3 is the best for any bowler who has bowled at least 10 overs in that phase this season.
“You need time to pick his action. He has got variation, he has got good pace. We have seen with Malinga. It's difficult to score off him,” said Dhoni explaining why Pathirana was chosen for the role after CSK’s win over Sunrisers Hyderabad.
In a similar vein, Jadeja has been CSK’s best spin bowler. Moeen has done well at home and Theekshana has been good away. Jadeja has been decent away and excellent at home in Chepauk.
It was his 3/20 in Wankhede that crashed Mumbai Indians. Even in matches where Jadeja has gone for runs, his economy has been lower than the average run-rate in the game.
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This is CSK’s gameplan with the ball: Akash Singh in the powerplay, Pathirana at the death, spinners in between with Deshpande filling in the gaps with the new and the old ball. The spinners remain the nucleus of their bowling.
The defeat against Punjab Kings says the same. The spinners could not provide control during the middle (2/78 in nine overs between Jadeja, Theekshana and Moeen) and CSK could not defend 201 at home.
Dhoni is a mastermind when it comes to captaining in spin-friendly conditions. He knows what field needs to be set, he knows the angles and he is well aware of the match-ups. He can produce wickets at his fingertips.
However, when spinners are not in play, it becomes tough to compensate for the frailties of the pace attack.
CSK is not a bulletproof bowling attack. It depends on spin-friendly conditions, Deshpande getting a breakthrough after a burst of boundaries, a powerplay specialist not picking wickets and Pathirana backing his bowling mechanisms with consistency.
It will be interesting to see how long CSK stick to this template. Or will conceding 200+ totals in successive games lead to a change already? Both Chahar and Stokes could be (or could not be) available to bowl soon.
Right now, CSK’s campaign is on a slight dip. Comfortable at the top of the table not too long ago, they have slipped to number four on the points table. This could be a season of two halves for the Yellow Army. At the same time, they can pin their hopes on Dhoni’s demeanor of not letting things slip out of his hands. And also the fact that they have three of their remaining five games at home and the other two away games in Lucknow and Delhi.
