Defending champions Chennai Super Kings will begin their IPL campaign against Kolkata Knight Riders on 26th March at the Wankhede Stadium. Chennai Super Kings’ players quietly do their business on the field and end up as one of the most dominating sides each season. CSK stuck to their winning template and bought almost the same players who won them the 2021 title.

A huge blow for the four-time champions is that they lost their star bowler Deepak Chahar due to injury. CSK snapped up Chahar for a whopping INR 14 crore in the IPL auction. Chahar’s absence until mid-April will hurt the Super Kings’ power-play bowling and also make their pace attack less threatening.

Since 2019, the right-arm pacer leads the list by picking up 32 wickets in the power-play. In 46 matches, MS Dhoni has used Chahar 35 times to bowl three overs in the power-play, the most for any bowler. This record shows the importance of Chahar in the CSK line-up.  

The 29-year-old cricketer also has good batting skills to strengthen the Super Kings’ batting depth. Without any doubt, Chahar’s absence will make a big impact on CSK. CSK might look to go with young all-rounder Rajvardhan Hangargekar. The teenager displayed his seam-bowling and hard-hitting abilities during the U-19 World Cup.   

If CSK replace Chahar with an Indian pacer, it will reduce their quality of pace attack. The same will make CSK over-reliant on Dwayne Bravo and Adam Milne. CSK might opt for Chris Jordan to strengthen their death bowling. All fans have to wait and watch what MS Dhoni decides.