Changes in Chennai Super Kings Squad

The Chennai Super Kings squad for Season 3 is out. And there are quite a few surprises. 

Biggest Surprise: Chennai Super Kings Squad in the current season is a much more smaller squad compared to IPL Season 1 and Season 2. (There are only 23 players against 29 players who participated in Season 2). For the complete list of the players, please visit Chennai Super Kings Squad. 

IN - New Players

The new players who are brought into the team

1. Thisara Perera, the Sri-lankan all-rounder. Bought in Auction

2. Ganapathy Chandrasekhar, the bowling all-rounder from TN who had a good domestic season

3. Justin Kemp, the hard-hitting all rounder from South African who never fulfilled his potential and others' expectations in international arena. Bought in Auction

4. Hemang Badani, ICL Chennai Super Stars player who took BCCI's amnesty offer. 

OUT - Injured & Others
The players who find them self out of the squad

1. Stephen Fleming - As expected, Coach Stephen Fleming is no more a member of the player's squad. 

2. Flintoff - Still recovering from the surgery, Flintoff is unavailable for this entire IPL Season

3. Joginder Sharma - A Very Good Decision. With Balaji in the squad, I don't see him adding any value to the team

4. Anirudha Srikkanth -  Another Good Decision. Any day would prefer Mukund, Vijay and even Parthiv Patel to Srikkanth

5, 6  & 7 Napeloen Einstein, Viraj Kadbe & Abhinav Mukund: Surprisingly, the team has decided to drop all U-21 players in the team. While it is understandable that Einstein and Kadbe without any domestic experience are dropped, I am not able to comprehend the decision to drop Mukund. 

8 & 9. Vidyut & Amarnath: Vidyut and Amarnath who failed to make any lasting impressions of the ample opportunities in Season 1 and Season 2 are also axed.

10. Suresh Kumar: Suresh, TN All rounder is also dropped. 

What this means?

While 10 players would be vying for the four foreign player slots (40% Probability), only 13 Indian players would be vying for 7 Indian players slots. (54% Probability). 

Update: Detailed Analysis to Follow

Tickets on Sale for Chennai Super Kings Matches @ Chennai

Tickets for the IPL Season 3 matches at Chennai has gone on sales from Feb 25th, 2010. Online Tickets are available at the official website. Please visit http://chennaisuperkings.com/tickets/MatchTicketList.aspx to book your tickets for CSK matches at Chennai.

Schedule of CSK Matches at Chennai

DATE	TIME	CHENNAI SUPER KINGS VS	TICKET AVAILABLITY
Mar 14 2010	20:00	DECCAN CHARGERS	Available
Mar 21 2010	20:00	PUNJAB KINGS	Available
Mar 31 2010	16:00	ROYAL CHALLENGERS	Available
Apr 3 2010	16:00	RAJASTHAN ROYALS	Available
Apr 6 2010	20:00	MUMBAI INDIANS	Available
Apr 13 2010	20:00	KOLKATA KNIGHT RIDERS	Available
Apr 15 2010	20:00	DELHI DAREDEVILS	Available

Key TN ICL Players Missing in CSK Squad

Who will decide the winner of IPL Season 3? Will it again be the captains like in IPL Season 1? Or a player will make a difference single-handedly? If somebody asks for my vote, I would have voted for the contingent of Indian ICL Players who will be playing in Indian Premier League for the first time.

Sudden flow of talent would have easily tilted the scales in favor of the team that signed the best ICL players. I wanted that team to be Chennai Super Kings. Especially I was expecting VB to use this opportunity to address the two key problems in the team

1. Lack of Explosive Indian Opening Batsman
2. Lack of a Stand-out Indian Fast/Medium Bowler

ICL Players in CSK Squad

But sadly the team has signed on Badani – A Middle Order Batsman & Ganapathy – Bowling all-rounder coming on the back of a good domestic season. But let us not kid ourself by thinking that these players would make a difference to the team. Other than being present in the team sheet, these two new signings are not expected to play any role for the team in the field.

Whom I wanted?

1. Vignesh
2. Kumaran

I would have expected the team to sign Vignesh, the explosive TN Opening Batsman on whose performance TN won India’s first domestic T20 event. I also expected the team to sign Kumaran, the standout performers of ICL Chennai Superstar. Sadly, Vignesh has been latched by KKR while Kumaran is not figuring in any of the team’s sheets.

Whom among Indian ICL Players did you expect Chennai Super Kings to sign?

17 Days to Go

I am sure all of you are aware that Chennai Super Kings have brought in 2 new players - Kemp & Perera. By the first look, it seems that Chennai Super Kings have just taken protection for increasingly injury prone foreign all-rounders in the team. For the complete story, visit http://chennaisuperkings.com/news/NewsContent.aspx?NewsID=200

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