In the first match of the 2023 Indian Premier League (IPL) in Ahmedabad on March 31, the Gujarat Titans (GT) defeated the Chennai Super Kings (CSK) by five wickets to extend their unbeaten streak. The award was given to Rashid Khan, who took two wickets and made an important cameo in the chase.
Shubman Gill assumed an imperative part for the Titans too, however relatively few CSK players moved forward in the competition opener. The Men in Yellow will be aware that the tournament has a long way to go. Before they can be considered a legitimate playoff contender, they need to close several gaps. In their IPL 2023 match against GT, CSK made the following three errors, two of which were masterstrokes.
Mistake – Team selection
Despite the fact that they were batting first, CSK oddly chose to go in with a very dainty looking bowling assault.
Dwaine Pretorius was benched, leaving CSK’s only real fast-bowling options to be IPL debutant Rajvardhan Hangargekar, unreliable Tushar Deshpande, and returning Deepak Chahar. The spin attack was also a little one-dimensional with left-arm spinners Ravindra Jadeja and Mitchell Santner in the mix.
More importantly, Prashant Solanki and Simarjeet Singh, who played for the franchise last year, were not included on CSK’s impact player list. Only they can explain why the Super Kings decided to use three substitute batters while batting first.
Masterstroke – Ruturaj Gaikwad’s intent-filled charge and Rajvardhan Hangargekar’s emergence
In their most promising performance against GT in the IPL 2023 opener, CSK’s youngsters stood out. Rajvardhan Hangargekar and Ruturaj Gaikwad performed admirably with the bat and ball, respectively, to give the Men in Yellow some hope of securing two points from the match.
Gaikwad showed purpose right all along, striking two lavish fours off Hardik Pandya’s blowing away in the second. From there, he didn’t look back as he hit a whopping nine sixes for a fantastic 92. The young opener displayed excellent game awareness and attacking instinct despite the fact that batters kept struggling and falling around him.
Hangargekar, on the other hand, sat out the entire season. But he didn’t give up this time, and in his aggressive bowling in his IPL debut, he took three wickets. The 20-year-old was always asking the GT batters questions and hitting hard lengths.
CSK have always said that they would give Hangargekar time to get ready for the IPL, and early indications suggest that he might be ready this year.
Mistake – In the 13th over, sending Shivam Dube.
CSK had, among others, Ravindra Jadeja, MS Dhoni, and Shivam Dube in the hut when Ambati Rayudu was dismissed in the 13th over. Dube was brought in by GT despite the fact that they only had one over of spin remaining at the time.
The move justifiably misfired as the Gujarat bowlers peppered Dube with a few short conveyances at his body. That has forever been the tall left-hander’s tragic flaw, and he tracked down it difficult to move those balls away to the limit.
Six of Dube’s 19 runs came in the 19th over on the ball before he was dismissed, and he consumed only 18 balls. Given the bowling assets GT planned to utilize, the Men dressed in Yellow ought to have been sent either Jadeja or Dhoni.