IPL 2019: Chennai Super Kings' strongest possible playing XI
Coming back after serving the two-year suspension, filling the teams with players who are in the wrong side of the 30s, being trolled as old age home and still managing to beat all odds and win the IPL, not everyone will have a fairytale comeback as Chennai Super Kings had in 2018.
But, the most important thing now is to consolidate on their success and defending their crown. Chennai Super Kings started off their title defence ahead of the 2019 IPL in the only way they know as they retained the core that was there for IPL 2019 and released just three players going into the IPL auction.
In the just-concluded IPL auction, Chennai needed just two Indian players and they filled the two spots by buying pacer Mohit Sharma for 5 crores and Rituraj Gaikwad for 20 lakhs.
With their squad set, let us take a look at how Chennai Super Kings could line-up in the 2019 IPL.
Squad: MS Dhoni, Suresh Raina, Faf du Plessis, M Vijay, Ravindra Jadeja, Sam Billings, Mitchell Santner, David Willey, Dwayne Bravo, Shane Watson, Lungi Ngidi, Imran Tahir, Kedar Jadhav, Ambati Rayudu, Harbhajan Singh, Deepak Chahar, KM Asif, Karn Sharma, Dhruv Shorey, N Jagadeesan, Shardul Thakur, Monu Kumar, Chaitanya Bishnoi.
Ambati Rayudu
Last season while everyone thought Murali Vijay will the batting for the Yellow Brigade, skipper MS Dhoni surprised everyone by making Ambati Rayudu, a batsman who has done well in the middle-order for Mumbai Indians, India, Hyderabad and all other teams he has played for, open the innings and this move proved to be a masterstroke as Rayudu ended the tournament as the leading run-getter for the team as he scored 602 runs in 16 matches at an average of 43 last season. In all likelihood, Rayudu will open the batting for them in the upcoming season.