IPL: 5 players who are dark horses for Chennai Super Kings this season
Over the course of IPL so far, each and every team have concentrated on creating a strong domestic base for themselves which has been very beneficial for the upcoming Indian talent. It all started from the very first season of IPL which saw Rajasthan Royals lift the trophy without having a lot of big names in the squad. Over the years, the uncapped players in each squad have proven to be extremely effective.
The IPL 2018 auction presented several surprises that created a lot of buzz in the world of cricket. A lot of Indian domestic cricketers made it to the tournament and went for a much higher bid than expected.
Over the past years, CSK have done a great job by including capable but not-so-known players in their side and created stars like Murali Vijay and Shadab Jakati. CSK have invested quite a bit in uncapped players this season by doing a lot of research prior to the auction. Let's take a look at five such able players who might turn out to be the dark horses for CSK:
#1 Karn Sharma
The leg-spinner has been impressive in his IPL career so far. Not so long ago, Karn was touted as one of the most promising spin talents of the country. In 2014, he even made it to the Indian team and played in all the three formats by performing quite well in the IPL that year. But then, things fizzled out and Karn soon lost the plot.
A capable spin bowler with variations and precision, his bonus asset is his clean striking with the bat down the order. He has played some crucial cameos for SRH from 2013-16. In fact, Karn was actually a specialist batsman when he started his career in First-class cricket back in 2007. Later, he realized that his major skills were in the spin bowling department. Over the years, Karn has been a regular in the IPL. He was the highest paid uncapped Indian player in IPL 2014. Last year, playing for Mumbai Indians, he got the nod ahead of veteran spinner Harbhajan Singh. He played 9 matches and notched up 13 wickets with an economy rate of about 7 and repaid the trust of the management as he was a key player in the latter half of the tournament.
The 2017-18 season was an ordinary year for him. After switching from Railways to Vidharbha as a professional this season, Karn featured in only 4 matches, scalping 14 wickets. Vidharba won the Ranji Trophy 2017-18 season but Karn was side-lined on the bench for most of the matches.
There was a time when he was chosen over Ravichandran Ashwin to play for Indian Test team in Australia but he failed to keep that momentum going owing to injuries and other internal factors. Karn knows that to make a comeback to the national side will not be easy and he is looking forward to capitalizing on every single opportunity he gets in the playing XI for CSK.