Hello, Last year I did preview pieces for all 8 of the teams taking part in the IPL, looking at the make ups of the different squads. This year I could trot out the same analysis however I want to try and improve and get better. Based on the metrics I have calculated if you read the previous blogs. Including some bowling ones. The Chennai Super kings the defending champions with there 3rd win of the competition in 2018. Led by MS Dhoni as captain the roster comprises of a number of highly experiences players. They have a relatively stable squad only adding two player in the auction. Let review their stats to see where they are

Batting

Above you can see a summary of all the main batsmen for Chennai with their batting average compared to all other players in the IPL. On the face of it for IPL batitng average this seems like a really strong squad. A number of players average above 30 therefore they are likely to be able to post big totals.

Again we see the strike rate are generally ok however they seem to be lacking in batsmen that strike above 140 with the mean for the team around the 130 mark. This may have an effect if they for instance are behind a required run rate and need to catch up.

Moving onto six hitting rate as that’s what twenty20 cricket is all about! The Chennai batsmen seem to strike sixes at a similar rate to the average batsmen however they do have 1 batsman Shorey who is able to hit a 6 on 10% of his deliveries faced. The relative low six hitting rates could be the reason for the generally lower strike rates.

Bowling

Moving onto the bowlers now first thing to look at is the wicket strike rate. How often a bowler takes a wicket on average. On the face of it Chennai have a pretty lethal bowling attack with most of their bowlers taking wickets at above average rates.

Wicket batting average is the un-catchy name I have given to the measure of the quality of the batsmen which they have taken the wicket of. As the higher the batting average the better the batter and therefore the harder it is to take the wicket. Therefore if you have a higher wicket batting average could be a sign of a better bowler. Basically it adds value to a wicket. For Chennai we come to the opposite storey. They take their wickets generally at a high rate however the wickets they take are generally lower quality players. Will that cause Chennai to struggle against tougher batting line ups?

Finally its the run rate and overall its about average nothing too good and nothing too bad. Overall I think the bowling attack is probably an average one able to take wickets however, may struggle against the top batsmen.

Thats it for today’s overview of Chennai Super Kings, let me know your thoughts. This only covers players in the squad who have played in the IPL previously so they could be wild cards to improve this team.