With the teams gearing up for the 13th season of the Indian Premier League which will begin on September 19, 2020. Chennai Super Kings who has won the IPL title thrice in these 13 years have already started preparing for the mega-event in Dubai. The players like MS Dhoni, Suresh Raina, Deepak Chahar and others have already made an appearance in the week-long camp which started from August 15, 2020. The players are sweating it out in the nets as a part of the preparation for IPL 2020. The team is supposed to leave for the tournament on August 22, 2020. Now, let’s have a look at the SWOT analysis for the Yellow Army:

Strengths:

The biggest strength for any team is their captain and by now we already know how good a captain MS Dhoni is. Winning three ICC Trophies and an equal number of IPL titles, the former Indian captain has been one of the biggest strength for the Chennai Super Kings. The addition of Piyush Chawla in the squad sends out their message loud and clear that the team is here to win. R Sai Kishore happens to give an additional advantage to the team. Suresh Raina and Kedar Jadhav are his sixth bowling options so the team looks quite balanced. However, there are a few loopholes too.

Weakness: 

By winning the IPL 2018, team Chennai Super Kings has proven that age is just a number. But still, the factor cannot be ruled away completely. Also, Dhoni played his last international match in July 2019 which didn't do well for India. Ambati Rayudu has also retired from all forms of cricket so this could prove to be fatal for the team.

Opportunities:

The pitch in UAE resembles the one in Chennai which would obviously benefit the spinners. Also, the IPL 2020 games will begin early by an hour so they won't have to bowl with a wet ball. Sam Curran's addition to the squad would prove to beneficial to existing pace batteries.

Threats: 

The biggest threat for CSK happens to be the top order which is highly inconsistent. If one may recall, even during the IPL 2019 finals, the Faf Du Plessis had scored 26 runs. However, in that particular game, Shane Watson had made 80 but then Suresh Raina was sent back to the pavilion on the score of eight.

Check out the squad for Chennai Super Kings below:

MS Dhoni, Ambati Rayudu, K Asif, Deepak Chahar, Dwayne Bravo, Faf du Plessis, Harbhajan Singh, Imran Tahir, Jagadeesan Narayan, Karn Sharma, Kedar Jadhav, Lungi Ngidi, Mitchell Santner, Monu Singh, Murali Vijay, Ravindra Jadeja, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Shane Watson, Shardul Thakur, Suresh Raina, Josh Hazlewood, Piyush Chawla, R Sai Kishore, Sam Curran.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Aug 18, 2020 04:59 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).