Even though the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024 is still a few months away, experts have already started to make playoff predictions. Sunil Gavaskar, the legendary batsman and former captain of India, believes that the reigning champion Chennai Super Kings (CSK) will have no difficulty making it back to the semifinals.
Chennai Super Kings, one of the most successful teams in the history of the competition, has already participated in 12 playoff games. They qualified for the knockout stages and finished second on the table with 17 points the previous year.
They went on to defeat the Gujarat Titans twice, once in the qualifying round and once in the final game, to secure the fifth and record-tying title. With five titles apiece, they share the record for most victories in the tournament’s history with the Mumbai Indians (MI).
Chennai Super Kings will definitely come in the top 4 as always – Sunil Gavaskar
Sunil Gavaskar was asked how strong the Chennai Super Kings appear to be going into the 2024 Indian Premier League at a discussion on Star Sports. On that, Gavaskar emphasized the purchases CSK made in Dubai during the players’ auction the previous year.
Darryl Mitchell, Mustafizur Rahman, and Rachin Ravindra were among the foreign players signed by the five-time champions, while Shardul Thakur, Sameer Rizvi, and Avanish Rao Aravelly were among the Indian players.
According to Gavaskar, the current champions have “a good mix of youth and experience,” which will help them to place among the top four in the upcoming competition.
“If you see the purchases they did at the auction table, the aspects they had to strengthen, it seemed like they lacked a little in bowling last year and in batting also they had to strengthen the middle order slightly after Ambati Rayudu’s retirement, they have done all that. They have a good mix of youth and experience,” said Sunil Gavaskar
As stated by Sunil Gavaskar, the Chennai Super Kings have qualified for 12 out of the 16 editions due to their consistent performance over a long period of time. It is therefore likely to occur for the 13th time.
“So I feel CSK will definitely come in the top four as always. You cannot say any team ‘definitely yes’ as favorites. However, the way the Chennai Super Kings have performed for so many years, they have qualified in 12 of the 16 editions. So it’s likely to happen for the 13th time,” he added.
I feel Chennai Super Kings have options- Sunil Gavaskar on whether CSK have sufficient injury backups
Sunil Gavaskar was also questioned about the Chennai Super Kings’ backup plans in the context of the team’s relative injury history with players like Mustafizur Rahman, Deepak Chahar, and Matheesha Pathirana. In response, he gave the following explanation:
“I feel they are covered because they have options. Shardul Thakur getting reacquired has removed the concern slightly about whether Deepak Chahar will play the entire tournament because Shardul Thakur can take his place.”
According to the former cricket player turned commentator , there won’t be any seam bowling problems for the MS Dhoni-led team.
“Tushar Deshpande is extremely fit and Mukesh Choudhary, who didn’t play last year, was quite impressive when he played before that. So if his form remains good, they will not have any concerns about the new-ball bowling,” Gavaskar reflected.
In the IPL 2023, Tushar Deshpande had the most success of any bowler for CSK with 21 wickets. In addition to getting Shardul Thakur, their seam-bowling unit will benefit from the return of Mukesh Choudhary, who had 16 dismissals in the 2022 Indian Premier League.