IPL 2020: 3 ways CSK could line up next season

2. Spinning a web

Shane Watson, Faf du Plessis, Suresh Raina, Ambati Rayudu, MS Dhoni, Kedar Jadhav, Mitchell Santner, Ravindra Jadeja, Piyush Chawla, Harbhajan Singh, Imran Tahir

The main difference between this team and the previous one lies in its bowling. The batting remains largely the same, with the only major differences being Harbhajan Singh and Mitchell Santner coming in for Deepak Chahar and Dwayne Bravo, which may weaken it slightly, but there is a reason for that.

This line-up will look to suffocate opposition, and Tahir could be crucial

On the surface, this may seem like a very unbalanced team, but the entire point of it is to stifle opposition batsmen using 20 overs of spin. Given Dhoni's propensity for entrusting spinners with crucial moments in games this remains a remote possibility, but it may be going too far even for him.

The merits of this line-up are that there are two spinners, in Santner and Harbhajan, who are fairly comfortable bowling with the new ball, as well as the fact that there is variety in the attack. With 2 left-arm spinners, 2 leggies and 2 off-spinners (counting Jadhav), Dhoni would have a plethora of options to turn to at any given point of time depending on the opposition batsmen, field dimensions and so on.

It may be unlikely, but it is an interesting proposition.