IPL 2018: 5 CSK finds who went on to play for India
The IPL each year gives us two months of non-stop cricket entertainment that involves stupendous on-field performances which catch the eye. The league serves as a platform for talented Indian cricketers to showcase their ability and push their case for a call to the national team.
Several players have used their IPL stints to good effect and made their way into the national squad. Chennai Super Kings, arguably the most consistent of all franchises across the first decade, gave their players an ideal platform. With former India captain MS Dhoni, former Chief Selector Kris Srikkanth and former President of the BCCI N. Srinivasan at their helm of affairs, CSK served as a perfect launchpad for the Indian team.
Here are five such players who made it to the Indian team because of their IPL experience with the Yellow Army.
#1 Ravichandran Ashwin
Ravichandran Ashwin rose to fame in the year 2010 when MS Dhoni used the off-spinner in the power play overs to good effect. The right arm off break bowler returned with impressive figures that year for CSK, picking up 13 wickets in 12 IPL games and as many scalps in 6 CLT20 games.
CSK won both these titles and Ashwin was adjudged Man of the Tournament in the latter, thus earning him a call-up to the national squad. It is worthy to mention that his economy rate while accounting for all these wickets was a miserly 6.23.
After a string of successes in the limited opportunities he got when regular spinner Harbhajan Singh was rested, Ashwin cemented his position in the team and went on to be a member of India's World Cup-winning squad in 2011.
Post that victory, the Tamil Nadu spinner has never looked back and taken giant strides in the world of cricket. He not just picked heaps of wickets as he mastered the art of spin bowling on Indian pitches but also contributed with the bat, making him a mainstay in the Indian line up across all formats.
Having reached many milestones, many of which have come in record time, Ashwin still keeps reinventing himself. Currently, he is in a new role of captaining a team as he leads the Kings XI Punjab outfit in IPL 2018.
In the eight matches so far, five of which his team has won, he has picked only 5 wickets at an average of 49.4 and an economy rate of 7.71. However, as long as his tactical changes and shrewd captaincy help Punjab win, the management will keep faith in him.