Ahmedabad: Mahendra Singh Dhoni is both in the thick of things and peripherals in a Chennai Super Kings' (CSK) match. His apparent farewell party might as well be not a day to remember as Shubman Gill's carnage may spoil it to earn Gujarat Titans' second IPL trophy on the trot.
In the summer of 2004, when Dhoni presented himself as a force who could blast opponents out of the game, a young Gill was taking stance in lush farmlands with looming clouds all over in Punjab's Fazilka village on Pakistan border, managing with a tailor-made bat by his loving grandfather.
Come tonight, Dhoni will be one step away from the last frontier at over 1-lakh capacity Narendra Modi Stadium to lay his hands on the trophy and in between both of them would be India's next-generation best batter Shubman Gill, who will leave no stone unturned to play the villain for the CSK team.
Back in 2011, Dhoni wisely deployed Ashwin to get rid of an in-form Chris Gayle in the final match against RCB to invoke a sense of victory among players. About Gill, three hundreds and 851 runs doesn't come as a fluke, and the match is contested as a battle between Gill's form and Dhoni's astuteness.
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One step away 🎢
— IndianPremierLeague (@IPL) May 27, 2023 " class="align-text-top noRightClick twitterSection" data="
Chennai Super Kings and Gujarat Titans have had an eventful journey to #TATAIPL 2023 #Final 💯
As they get ready for the summit clash 🏆, take a look at the Road to the Final of the two teams 👌🏻👌🏻#CSKvGT | @ChennaiIPL | @gujarat_titans pic.twitter.com/Eq6YtwOpZY
">One step away 🎢
— IndianPremierLeague (@IPL) May 27, 2023
Chennai Super Kings and Gujarat Titans have had an eventful journey to #TATAIPL 2023 #Final 💯
As they get ready for the summit clash 🏆, take a look at the Road to the Final of the two teams 👌🏻👌🏻#CSKvGT | @ChennaiIPL | @gujarat_titans pic.twitter.com/Eq6YtwOpZYOne step away 🎢
— IndianPremierLeague (@IPL) May 27, 2023
Chennai Super Kings and Gujarat Titans have had an eventful journey to #TATAIPL 2023 #Final 💯
As they get ready for the summit clash 🏆, take a look at the Road to the Final of the two teams 👌🏻👌🏻#CSKvGT | @ChennaiIPL | @gujarat_titans pic.twitter.com/Eq6YtwOpZY
The match-ups makes for an interesting watch. Deepak Chahar's swing could be hard to upstage a batter of Gill's calibre, and the ball might be thrown to Ravindra Jadeja for his tight deliveries or Moeen Ali, who could use his flight outside off-stump to induce the batter to go for a biggie. It remains to be seen.
Read: World Cup schedule and venues to be announced during World Test Championship final
Fans across Chennai and India might want the talismanic batter to continue but with a heavily taped knee along with a tiresome tournament, if the numbers of the games are anything to go by, Dhoni's return is highly unlikely next year. So, for every Thala (elder brother in Tamil), it's all about kvelling every minuscule moment for one may not know if it will come back next year.
CSK have had to endure the absence of Deepak Chahar in the first part of the tournament who had to be replaced by profligate Tushar Deshpande and he has been turned into a reliable wicket-taker for the CSK family. Turning an inconsistent Shivam Dube into a six-hitting bully or overseeing the return of Ravindra Jadeja, the T20 bowler, the legend of Dhoni will never cease to exist. It will only grow and his captaincy stories will also be burnished with coats of myth decades down the line.
The CSK team bears the logo of a 'Roaring Lion', and they will be up against the team from the Land of Gir Forest. And rightly so, as upon the completion of 73 games, the most consistent team are vying for the title. GT, at times, looks like a doppelganger of CSK, as they have emulated the essence of CSK in every aspect -- from cricketing decisions to giving confidence to players clubbed with the no-interference policy by the franchise owners.
Skipper Pandya swears by only singular way to lead the team -- 'The Mahi Way'. The old adage that batters win matches but bowlers win tournaments couldn't hold more true as is in the case of Gujarat Titans' saga. Mohammed Shami (28 wickets), Rashid Khan (27 wickets) and Mohit Sharma (24 wickets) have executed plans more often than not and thus it hasnt really effected the Titans that second highest run-scorer after Gill's 851 runs is skipper Hardik Pandya (325), who is more than 500 runs behind.
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Wholesome and full of Feels 🫶
— IndianPremierLeague (@IPL) May 27, 2023 " class="align-text-top noRightClick twitterSection" data="
Not just a Leader - an Emotion 🤗
Everyone is an 𝗠𝗦 𝗗𝗵𝗼𝗻𝗶 fan 😃#TATAIPL | #Final | #CSKvGT | @ChennaiIPL | @msdhoni pic.twitter.com/bUtdnEQX1s
">Wholesome and full of Feels 🫶
— IndianPremierLeague (@IPL) May 27, 2023
Not just a Leader - an Emotion 🤗
Everyone is an 𝗠𝗦 𝗗𝗵𝗼𝗻𝗶 fan 😃#TATAIPL | #Final | #CSKvGT | @ChennaiIPL | @msdhoni pic.twitter.com/bUtdnEQX1sWholesome and full of Feels 🫶
— IndianPremierLeague (@IPL) May 27, 2023
Not just a Leader - an Emotion 🤗
Everyone is an 𝗠𝗦 𝗗𝗵𝗼𝗻𝗶 fan 😃#TATAIPL | #Final | #CSKvGT | @ChennaiIPL | @msdhoni pic.twitter.com/bUtdnEQX1s
A case in point as to how much value is placed in a player is Wriddhiman Saha, who displayed his going-ballistic skills for the first time at the grand stage in the last edition but has failed this season with underwhelming numbers of 127 strike-rate and sole half-century in the 16 matches he has played.
And if CSK get him early and later Gill, it would be a situation of grabbing snake by the neck as no other batter has shown the guile to make match-winning score for the Titans, leaving bowlers a dismal score to defend. The fact that players tend to blossom under Dhoni can be evident from Ajinkya Rahane's 299 runs in 13 matches, Shivam Dube's role to thwart oppositions through hostile cricket, Sri Lanka's Matheesha Pathirana's 17 wickets and uncapped Tushar Deshpande (21 scalps) finding his feet in the IPL.
The CSK has an envious batting line-up to begin with. As the numbers suggest Devon Conway has had a dream run with 625 runs in 15 matches, six fifties and Ruturaj Gaikwad scoring 564 runs in 15 matches with four fifties, setting the stage on fire early on for the Yellow Army. Dube being the joint-highest six hitter clubbed along with Gill, the IPL trophy promises to be a cracker of a contest without any favourites.
Teams (from):
Gujarat Titans: Hardik Pandya (c), Shubman Gill, David Miller, Abhinav Manohar, Sai Sudharsan, Wriddhiman Saha, Matthew Wade, Rashid Khan, Rahul Tewatia, Vijay Shankar, Mohammed Shami, Alzarri Joseph, Yash Dayal, Pradeep Sangwan, Darshan Nalkande, Jayant Yadav, R. Sai Kishore, Noor Ahmad, Dasun Shanaka, Odean Smith, KS Bharat, Shivam Mavi, Urvil Patel, Joshua Little and Mohit Sharma.
Chennai Super Kings: Mahendra Singh Dhoni (c&wk), Devon Conway, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Ambati Rayudu, Moeen Ali, Ravindra Jadeja, Ajinkya Rahane, Sisanda Magala, Shivam Dube, Dwaine Pretorius, Ajay Mandal, Nishant Sindhu, Rajvardhan Hangargekar, Mitchell Santner, Subhranshu Senapati, Simarjeet Singh, Matheesha Pathirana, Mahesh Theekshana, Bhagath Verma, Prashant Solanki, Shaikh Rasheed, Tushar Deshpande.
Time: 7:30PM IST.
