IPL 2020 | Imran Tahir would walk into picture later this season, reveals Kasi Viswanathan

Despite ending up as Chennai Super Kings’ leading wicket-taker last season, with 26 wickets at an average of 16.58, the 41-year-old Imran Tahir wasn’t picked in the playing XI thus far in the season. While he was eligible to play starting from the second game, the management instead opted to pair Piyush Chawla alongside Ravindra Jadeja in a two-man spin attack. After it emerged as a successful plan against Mumbai Indians, the spin attack soon was found out by the opponents, backfiring on the three-time IPL champions. 

However, with conditions slowing down and the tracks turning dry, the return of the leg-spinner is imminent. After the toss against Sunrisers Hyderabad, MS Dhoni admitted that Tahir is in the plans but isn’t playing due to the cap on foreign players. Following that, CSK’s CEO Kasi Viswanathan too joined, revealing that the leg-spinner would walk into the three-time IPL champions’ picture later this season. 

"He will definitely come into the picture as we go ahead. Right now, with the conditions on offer, the team composition has been planned with two foreigners at the top as pure batsmen and then two pace bowling all-rounders. But he will come in with the wickets starting to take turn in the second half. You have the 4-foreigner restriction so you always plan according to the conditions on offer," said Kasi, reported TOI. 

Meanwhile, IPL’s mid-season transfer window has opened, which had led to multiple speculations that some franchises could be looking to target specific players. However, Kasi downright turned down a probability of the team participating in the transfer window, adding that they are not looking at any player. 

"CSK has never brought or released players in the mid-season transfer window and we have honestly not even gone through the rules and regulations that come into play if we are looking at a transfer. We are not looking at any player," he explained.