Can CSK’s Daddy Army final year be their ‘golden year’
Chennai Super Kings always knew the 30+ players wasn’t enough for the future and with 2020 auction looming, they would go back to their 2008 roots of picking a mixed bag of experienced and young players to build a legacy.
‘Dad’s Army,’ we are not talking about the BBC’s mini-series or the movie that came in 2016, we are talking about the Chennai Super Kings’ auction strategy in 2017. The Super Kings returned into the limelight and had to rebuild from the pieces that they put together in 2008. The pieces or the ‘core’ as they address it, is the backbone of the franchise consisting of Suresh Raina, Ravindra Jadeja and MS Dhoni. And how exactly did they do that? By signing experienced tried and tested out veterans such as Shane Watson, Harbhajan Singh, Imran Tahir and Ambati Rayudu.
Just when you thought the age could not be lower than 30, signed Kedar Jadhav, Dwayne Bravo and Karn Sharma to increase the average age. It was not necessarily a bad strategy for the Super Kings as they needed to overturn their fortune immediately due to the demanding expectation from the fans. The fans were left angst and wondering whether the ‘Dad’s Army’ as the Super Kings addressed them could get the franchise to another IPL title.
As Sunil Gavaskar addressed the above 30 players in his book ‘One Day Wonders’, MS Dhoni’s men were ‘OT’ or in simple words ‘Above-Thirty.’ What did Gavaskar’s OT team in Benson and Hedges 1985 and MS Dhoni’s Dad’s Army in 2018 have in common? Simple, a title. The proven formula was what ‘Thala’ Dhoni wanted to go with and who better than trusted Raina, Jadeja and Bravo to prove the OT criticisms wrong.
You could say the Super Kings’ strategy and fortune were on the same lines of Daft Punk’s ‘Get Lucky,’ but it wasn’t. CSK’s method to the madness was fairly simple, go with the trusted and proven ones despite their looming age. They will get you the result and if there was one person who knew to get the best out of the players it is, MS Dhoni himself. Watson during his stint with the RCB failed miserably, and yet Dhoni backed him for a bigger role and he banked on the trust and his willow to give CSK the comeback title.
It was a wise business from the Super Kings to get 30+ players to fill in the three-year gap before the mega-auction. In 2020, the players who donned the jersey after the hiatus would not be there, would not even be in the picture of contention, to be honest. They have done their job to the best, reaching two back-to-back finals and winning one trophy while narrowly missing out on the other. When under pressure at the Auction table, teams go for the talented pool of players who can be a long-term option for them. The management, including Stephen Fleming, knew that the run will and must come to an end at some time and that time is 2020.
Why would you want a long-term option when you know the 2020 Auction is going to be doom to your planning. Combined with the new signings, CSK finished off the season with their third IPL title. That worked, however, will that work time and again? No, with the reason being fairly simple. The Super Kings have never been that side to go with a trusted combination, they had a bunch of well-mixed players between all age groups. To make it more simple, the way they have picked up players in the 2019 IPL Auction will and should give you an idea on what is panning for the future. Super Kings will, would and should go with their Professor ‘X’ formula.
In the 2019 Auction, they picked up four players and only one, a certain Piyush Chawla was above 30, precisely 31. While it was bizarre for the franchise to go for another 30+ player, it is crucial to remember that it would be the last year for the ‘Batch of 2019.’ Josh Hazlewood was signed to give that boost in the bowling department while Sam Curran and R Sai Kishore were definitely looked upon for the future. The direction that the franchise would be going in has to be finalised by the end of this season as the 30+ aged players will be on the last leg of their pilgrimage. With as many as 13 players aged over 30, this would be Daddy Army’s final year at the Lion’s Den.
Post-2020 Auctions, the Super Kings would slot in the strategy that they so famously used in 2008 while capturing local talents, including Ravichandran Ashwin, Subramaniam Badrinath, Lakshmipathy Balaji, Abhinav Mukund and Srikkanth Anirudha. In 2020, they will have to go back to bang the very same door that they gave them the formula to building a successful franchise- the domestic circuit. Combined with the purchase of overseas names, the Super Kings will be back on the Auction table to build a legacy.
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