Where Chennai Super Kings finished last year
Fifth, with seven wins and losses, after Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) pipped them on net run-rate and qualified for the playoffs.
What's new in IPL 2025
CSK don't really do 'new' in a huge way. It's their consistency in personnel and strategy that has been the bedrock for their success - five IPL titles, and two in the last four seasons. This year, some of their 'new' is also old. R Ashwin, Sam Curran and Vijay Shankar return to the franchise after several years away. Devon Conway, who had missed IPL 2024 with injury, was also bought back.
CSK aren't usually big on wristspin or mystery spin, but they splurged INR 10 crore this season on Noor Ahmad, the 20-year-old left-arm wristspinner from Afghanistan. He, along with Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja, form a formidable spin attack when conditions warrant it.
Rahul Tripathi is set to slot in at No.3, a role performed by Ajinkya Rahane and Robin Uthappa in the recent past.
With the revival players like Rahane, Uthappa and Shivam Dube enjoyed at CSK, the franchise has developed a perception of being a place that can rehabilitate flagging IPL careers. This season, in addition to Tripathi and Vijay Shankar, they also acquired Shreyas Gopal, Kamlesh Nagarkoti and Deepak Hooda - five players whose IPL careers have been derailed in recent seasons.
Likely best XII
1 Devon Conway/Rachin Ravindra*, 2 Ruturaj Gaikwad (capt), 3 Rahul Tripathi, 4 Deepak Hooda/Vijay Shankar, 5 Shivam Dube, 6 Ravindra Jadeja, 7 Sam Curran*, 8 MS Dhoni (wk), 9 R Ashwin, 10 Noor Ahmad/Nathan Ellis*, 11 Matheesha Pathirana*, 12 Khaleel Ahmed
*denotes overseas player
Big question
Watch out for
The high bids for Ashwin and Noor - CSK also have Jadeja's left-arm fingerspin, Gopal's legspin, and Hooda's part-time offspin - indicates a return to the famous spin-to-win strategy at Chepauk. In IPL 2024, the fast bowlers took 74 wickets while the spinners claimed only 25 at the venue. Even during the 2023 ODI World Cup, Chepauk offered sharp bounce and pace to the quicks, but that could change during IPL 2025.
Curran is currently not part of England's squads in any format, but a big IPL season will be hard to ignore for the selectors. Promoting Jadeja up the order didn't produce the kind of output CSK hoped for in IPL 2024. Curran is better equipped to float in the batting line-up - he batted primarily at No.4 for Desert Vipers in the UAE's ILT20 - and will also have a job to do with the ball in the end overs, especially at Chepauk.
Along with Curran, CSK's wealth of allrounders - Dube, Jadeja, Ashwin, Vijay Shankar, Hooda, Ravindra, Jamie Overton among others - means they will never be short of bowling options or batting depth.
Key stats
MS Dhoni had a strike rate of 220.54 in IPL 2024, his highest across all seasons. He clattered 161 off 73 balls, including 14 fours and 13 sixes. At the age of 43, will he be able to have a similar impact at the death this year?
Since joining CSK in 2022, Dube has a strike rate of nearly 159 against spin - the highest among 13 batters against this variety of bowling for a minimum of 30 IPL innings.
There are strong reasons why CSK see Khaleel Ahmed as a replacement for Deepak Chahar: in IPL 2024, he took eight wickets in 14 innings in the powerplay at an economy rate of 8.87 during this phase. Only Trent Boult, Mitchell Starc, Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Vaibhav Arora picked up more powerplay wickets than Khaleel last season.
Who's out, who's in doubt?
TNPL star Gurjapneet Singh, who had missed the second phase of the Ranji Trophy with injury, is fit again, but with Curran and Khaleel being CSK's frontline left-arm seamers, it's hard to see another left-armer fit into their XI or XII. As of now, CSK have all players available for selection.