Chennai Super Kings (CSK) returns to Indian Premier League (IPL) 2018 and the fans are ecstatic. The franchise owned by India Cements Limited is making a comeback after serving a two-year ban by Supreme Court. Mahendra Singh Dhoni will be again leading the side and it seems all merry times for the Chennai franchise and its huge fan-base.

For Chennai Super Kings, the franchise had retained its core players – MS Dhoni, Ravindra Jadeja, and Suresh Raina – before going into the auction. Dwayne Bravo and Faf Du Plessis returned to CSK too, with Kedhar Jadhav being their costliest player in the auction. Other notable signings were Shane Watson, Karn Sharma, Shardul Thakur, and Imran Tahir. Harbhajan Singh and Ambati Rayadu who has been a mainstay in Mumbai Indians squad for a long time now will play in the yellow jersey for the first time in IPL. Also, Ravichandran Ashwin who has been one of the icon players for CSK over the years will be playing for Kings XI Punjab this IPL as the franchise.

Searching for a quick-pace bowler, CSK surprised everyone with the selection of Lungi Ngidi. The South African-quick impressed everyone on his debut with his express pace during the recently concluded Test series against India. To add the local flavour to side, Murali Vijay seems to be the only local boy in CSK’s squad. The Chennai-franchise seems to have caught up on the age-factor as the average age of their squad is 33 years.

CSK under MS Dhoni’s leadership has been one of the most-successful franchise winning the coveted trophy for two times (2010 & 2011) and reaching the Finals of IPL on other four occasions (2008, 2012, 2013, & 2015). Also, the franchise has won the Champions League for a couple of times too (2010 & 2014). However, it will be interesting to see what strategies and tactics MS Dhoni employs to take Chennai Super Kings to their third IPL title this year.

CSK plays its home matches at the iconic M.A. Chidambaram Stadium. It has an intense rivalry with both Mumbai Indians and Royal Challengers Bangalore, with the teams playing against each other, the most number of times.

CHENNAI SUPER KINGS FULL SQUAD FOR IPL 2018 [25 players]

MS Dhoni (Captain), Ravindra Jadeja, Suresh Raina, Kedar Jadhav, Dwayne Bravo, Karn Sharma, Shane Watson, Shardul Thakur, Ambati Rayudu, Murali Vijay, Harbhajan Singh, Faf Du Plessis, Mark Wood, Sam Billings, Imran Tahir, Deepak Chahar, Mitchell Santner, Lungisani Ngidi, Asif KM, N Jagadeesan, Kanishk Seth, Monu Singh, Dhruv Shorey, Kshitiz Sharma, and Chaitanya Bishnoi.

Support Staff:

Head Coach: Stephen Fleming.

Batting Coach: Michael Hussey

Bowling Coach: Lakshmipathy Balaji

The dust around the much-hyped IPL Auction 2018 is now settled. It’s about time and the Whistle Podu chants and songs are only about to beat your mobiles and TVs. The excitement around the auction has been done and dusted now and it is time for some cricketing action now.

The 11th VIVO IPL begins on April 7th and it will be interesting to how far does the MS Dhoni-led side go in the tournament. Stay tuned for many such updates on 11th VIVO Indian Premier League.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jan 30, 2018 11:03 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).