Former Indian cricketer Aakash Chopra opined that Chennai Super Kings lack finishers in IPL 2025. Although the five-time champions have a formidable squad, there are very few big hitters in the side. Ahead of CSK’s IPL 2025 opener against MI on March 23, Chopra pointed out that the lack of finishers could be the biggest challenge for CSK in the upcoming edition.
Dube, Dhoni not enough for CSK?
In a video on his YouTube channel, Chopra claimed that CSK did not have a lot of options in terms of a legit finisher. He said that Dhoni was one option but he would only come out to bat after the 17th over.
“I am not able to find too many of them. When we look at the Chennai squad, too many challenges are not seen. They probably lack a little firepower because you have a legit finisher in the form of Shivam Dube, and you have one in the form of Dhoni, but Dhoni doesn’t come to bat before the 17th over,” Chopra said.
Chopra further opined that batters like Jadeja and Conway aren’t reputed to be power hitters. CSK is expected to field the likes of Jadeja, Rahul Tripathi, Shivam Dube and Dhoni in the middle-order. However, none of them barring Dube and Dhoni are expected to fire big hits into the crowd.
“The power you talk about in T20 games hasn’t been seen in Jadeja. You might see Tripathi playing, and then Conway at the top, they are more like grafters. They are collectors but maybe not powerful strikers. I had to do some nitpicking to find challenges,” Chopra added.
CSK squad for IPL 2025
Ruturaj Gaikwad, Matheesha Pathirana, Shivam Dube, Ravindra Jadeja, MS Dhoni, Devon Conway, Rahul Tripathi, Rachin Ravindra, R. Ashwin, Khaleel Ahmed, Noor Ahmad, Vijay Shankar, Sam Curran, Shaik Rasheed, Anshul Kamboj, Mukesh Choudhary, Deepak Hooda, Gurjapneet Singh, Nathan Ellis, Jamie Overton, Kamlesh Nagarkoti, Ramakrishna Ghosh, Shreyas Gopal, Vansh Bedi, Andre Siddarth
