Former New Zealand and Chennai Super Kings’ all-rounder Scott Styris feels that his former IPL franchise is in big trouble before the IPL 2021, as they released six players ahead of the mini-auction that will happen in February.
The likes of Kedar Jadhav, Harbhajan Singh, Shane Watson, Piyush Chawla, Murali Vijay, and Monu Singh were let go by the franchise, as they strive to bring in youngsters after failing to make it into the playoff for the first time in IPL history in the 2020 edition in UAE.
CSK had made a grand comeback in IPL 2018 after serving a two-year ban and won the tournament under the leadership of MS Dhoni and with help of veteran players like Harbhajan Singh, Ambati Rayudu, Suresh Raina, Shane Watson, Dwayne Bravo, and Faf du Plessis amongst others. They continued the golden run by making it into the finals of IPL 2019 as well, losing to Mumbai Indians.
However, the wheels came off in IPL 2020 as Harbhajan Singh and Suresh Raina opted out of the tournament due to personal reasons and finally the aging daddies’ army failed to compete with the young brigade of other teams.
After the team was eliminated, captain MS Dhoni himself spoke about the need to bring some fresh faces and rejig the side. However, Styris believes the six players that have been released don't seem to solve the purpose which Dhoni highlighted.
IPL 2021: Chennai Super Kings - List of players retained and released
“I think their hands are tied a little bit. In reality, the storyline for the last three years has been about the old is gold and aging side that CSK has but that was always going to come back and bite them really and that reason for that is you still need the younger generation coming through.
MS Dhoni mentioned that. He spoke about handing it over to the next generation. Where that comes from, I don't know,” Styris told Star Sports.
CSK head into the IPL 2021 mini-auction, with a purse of ₹22.9 crore, which needs to be spent wisely to fill slots for seven domestic and one overseas player.
“I think they are in big trouble. The players they released were expected to be the older players in the squad. I think a couple is there but who are the backbones? Where is that spine coming from for CSK?
When you look at that top order, they're not playing a lot of cricket, so I think CSK has a lot of work ahead of them. The auction is a big part of that, not only for this year but next too,” Styris added.
MS Dhoni himself and Suresh Raina retired from international cricket in August 2020 and Ambati Rayudu no more plays in international cricket. Shane Watson retired, while Faf du Plessis (36) and Dwayne Bravo (37) are both in the twilight of their careers.
(Star Sports inputs)
