Decoding Chennai Super Kings' strategy for IPL 2014 Auctions

With their core players retained, how would Chennai Super Kings approach the IPL Players’ Auctions?

Chennai Super Kings was one of the three teams in the inaugural edition of the Indian Premier League to go into the auction without any icon players. Only two teams were face-less, with each team having a mascot to represent, but those were the two teams that eventually met each other in the grand finalé.

This year, CSK has retained five players in MS Dhoni, Suresh Raina, Ravi Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja and Dwayne Bravo. They were the 5 of the 8 key players. Sadly they couldn’t retain Albie Morkel, Mike Hussey and Murali Vijay who are the remaining 3 key players.

With their full retention, they have exhausted two-third of their purse already and have been left with only 21 crore to bid with. But even with the retained team, the team has started looking bright with: Core and Powerful Middle Order along with two frontline spinners and a ever dependable all rounder in Bravo. Needless to say about the Big King, the ruler MSD, whose explosive batting and ice cool captaincy needs no remainder.

Retained Players: MS Dhoni, Ashwin, Raina, Jadeja, Bravo(O)

Amount Exhausted: Rs. 39 crore

Remaining Purse: Rs. 21 crore

‘Right to Match’ card available: 1

Advantage: Already a team has been in shape

Disadvantage: Only one-third purse and most of their old team is in top bass price [Mike Hussey, George Bailey and Vijay at 2Cr, Faf du Plessis and Albie Morkel at 1.5Cr, Mohit Sharma, Chris Morris and S Badrinath at 1Cr]

All this makes me wonder, if I would be able to see the same old team back with some boost added to the pace department. The Right to Match card is one gift we have, which should either be used on Mike Hussey or Albie Morkel. No second choice in it. None deserve it better.

Opening slot is wide open. Definitely Vijay would be far more expensive to buy and hence focus should be on players like Unmukt Chand, Vijay Zol, etc. Foreign slot would go to Michael Hussey, and if he is missed, Faf or Bailey is a better choice. Other considerations are de Kock, Kushal Perera, Tamim Iqbal, Robin Uthappa.

Middle order already comprises Raina, Dhoni and Bravo. Badri would be an easy buy but some teams might play spoil sport just to increase the price. If not Badri, Baba Aparajith is an automatic choice.

Lower order needs a hard hitting all rounder like Albie Morkel. If CSK can’t buy him out, the choices should be made between Luke Wright, Angela Matthews, Jacques Kallis(Opener), Ryan Ten Doeschate, Chris Morris, Darren Sammy. This slot should be the most important one as they might open the bowling too.

Jadeja and Ashwin come next in the line. Jadeja is going to be the floater in the team and hence he will be made to do most demanding things in the most demanding matches; sometimes he needs to anchor, sometimes to go hard from the very first ball, sometimes to contain with bowling and other times to take crucial wickets. Heck!!! This guy may be a fun to others, but most of the CSK strategies are going to be developed around him and MSD.

An Indian seamer and overseas pacer is all we need right now at this point. The simple choices are Ishwar Pandey, RP Singh, Praveen Kumar, L Balaji and Munaf Patel. They are not big names but considerable to take wickets. Ishwar Pandey is not as big as prime Indian bowlers, but still he is as good as them.

Balaji and Munaf patel are the forgotten ones but still effective in containing and also at operating intelligently. RP Singh is a heavy wicket taker and MSD is fond of him. Praveen is good with new ball and so will be effective only in the first 8 overs span; but he can make up for that quite with bat.

We have a big pool of choice for the overseas pacer. It would be better if CSK is focusing in on Tim Southee, Ben Hilfenhaus, Dirk Nannes, Mitchell Starc, Ben Cutting, Doug Bollinger, Nathan Coulter-Nile, Adam Milne, etc. But best choices would be Conter-Nile, Cutting and Southee.

Nannes and Doug Bollinger are also better choices but the other 3 has batting abilities; also Starc is a bit over-priced at 2 Cr. Milne is not tested much and might be injury-prone. Hilfy is not featured in IPL 6 without any reason revealed, so they might not go for him

So the wishful XI would be: M Hussey/J Kallis (O1), V Zol/U Chand, S Raina, S Badrinath, D Bravo(O2), MS Dhoni (C)(WK), R Jadeja (Floater), R Ten Doeschate/A Morkel/D Sammy (O3) , R Ashwin, Nathan Coulter-Nile/Ben Cutting (O4), I Pandey/RP Singh/L Balaji

Wishful Squad: MSD, Raina, Ashwin, Bravo, Jadeja, M Hussey, V Zol, U Chand, M Bisla, S Badrinath, B Aparajith, S Anirudha, T Suman, W Saha, R Tendo, A Morkel, D Sammy, R Taylor, N Coulter-Nile, B Cutting, I Pandey, A Rajpoot, I Ahmed, L Balaji, S Jakati, T Southee