Mitchell Santner has been ruled out of International cricket for the next 9 months as he’ll be needing knee surgery for a bone defect that was diagnosed after the limited overs series against England.
Advertisement
Santer was bought for his base price by the Chennai franchise in the IPL, and will now miss the entire IPL 2018, giving CSK the option of opting for a replacement.
Now, while Santner is a bowling all-rounder and if CSK want a like for like replacement they should be going in for a slow bowling all-rounder, with the kind of team that they have, an opening batsman or a good foreign fast bowler might be the way to go.
With Jadeja and Bravo(bowling all rounders) set to be in the first XI and Watson, Jadhav and Raina(batting all rounders) to make it too, CSK don’t necessarily need any more all-rounders.
Now, with just Mark Wood and Ngidi as their foreign fast bowling recruits, CSK could be going in with one of those initially overlooked International fast bowlers.
Also, with no explosive foreign batsman in the top 4(du Plessis is not really explosive), they could be going in for those umpteen overseas opening batsmen).
Here are 5 players CSK could buy
Martin Guptill
Martin Guptill going unsold was one of the biggest mysteries of the IPL auction. With a base price of just Rs 75 lakhs, Guptill should be have been gobbled up by some franchise, but for some reason, unknown to the sane, teams opted out of bidding for him.
Guptill is the 5th ranked batsmen in the ICC T20I Rankings and has been in stellar form during the T20 tri series against England and Australia and the home ODI series against England.
He recently scored the fastest T20 ton by a New Zealander with a 49 ball against the Aussies.
Guptill could fit right into the CSK XI, providing them with that much needed oomph at the top of the order and with Fleming pulling the strings with respect to team selections, he would be aware of the talent and skill of Guptill(being his countryman) and could get him in right away.
Hashim Amla
Amla has often been misunderstood as a player, and has often been overlooked in the shortest format of the game despite boasting of an IPL average of 44.38 and a strike rate of 141.77 from 16 IPL games.
Amla has been a successful opener for the Kings XI in the past and could provide the CSK line up with some much needed impetus and solidity at the top of the order.
The only thing that could maybe work against Amla, especially when he is head-to-head with Martin Guptill is his recent form in the limited overs series against India.
Mitchell McLeneghan
Mitch McClenghan was once an indispensable part of the the New Zealand T20 unit and while he has lost his place in the Kiwi side, he continued to be an important part of the Mumbai Indians setup, dishing out those slow, bouncy balls during the death to get most of the batsman holing out to the boundary riders.
However, he wasn’t retained/bought by the Mumbai franchise this time round and none of the other franchises too showed much interest in securing the services of the mighty Kiwi.
With just two foreign fast bowlers in the side and with none of them having much experience of having played in the IPL(or event T20I for that matter), McClenghan could be drafted in to help CSK carry out their powerplay and death bowling.
McClenghan has taken 54 wickets in 40 IPL games.
The only thing that could work against Mitch is the fact that he doesn’t feature in his country’s national side anymore and that CSK already have their death bowling bowlers sorted, as Thakur and Bravo would be plying their trade then.
McCleneghan is most lethal when the batsman are attacking him and has picked up most of his wickets during the death overs. He can’t really fill in as the new ball bowler for CSK.
David Willey
An all-rounder injured, take the most trusted route and get in another all-rounder.
David Willey has been brilliant for England in the T20 format in the last few years, swinging the ball upfront, slowing up the pace during the middle overs and dishing out those yorkers at the death.
He is no mug with the bat either, possessing the ability to tonk it long and hard. whenever called upon to use the long handle.
It was a pity that he wasn’t picked in the auctions, but he could so very beautifully slot into this CSK side.
Willey can open the bowling and bowl during the middle overs too. With Thakur and Bravo most certain to take up death bowling duties, Willey is one bowler who would complement them the best.
Also Willey could come in late down the order and tonk a few. Getting him in would be a very shrewd decision, something that only the CSK think tank is capable of.
Travis Head
Still in search of that explosive overseas batsman at the top of the order.
Head can take the attack to the opposition and can set the pace of the CSK innings up top.
Head has already plied his trade with RCB but wasn’t quite used at the top of the order where is very comfortable, with the ball coming onto the bat a little better.
He does struggle against spin but when he opening the batting, he doesn’t need to worry about that a lot and hence could be devastating for CSK, also giving them that left hand-right hand opening batting combination.
He has an average of 29.29 in 10 IPL games(a strike rate of 138.51) and has almost similar figures in T20I, but if his talent is unleashed at the top of the order, those numbers could go higher, much higher.
Do let us know which other players could infact replace Santner
