Hyderabad: Succession and legacy. These two themes will dominate Sunday’s IPL final between Chennai Super Kings (CSK) and Gujarat Titans (GT).
A matching-winning knock in the final and Gill will announce himself as the next big thing in Indian cricket. Another title and Dhoni will equal Rohit Sharma as the most decorated IPL captain.
Dhoni is already India’s most successful national team captain.
These two players are in completely different phases of their career and naturally have different strengths. Gill at 23 is hungry for runs as only a youth can be.
Dhoni, on the other hand, is 41. He no longer struts out to bat with his flowing golden mane and perhaps doesn’t even finish games like he used to 10 years ago. But he is still the shrewdest mind in cricket. He is perhaps the only cricketer who turns a cricket match into a game of chess. And in this cricket-turned-chess match, Dhoni is no less than Magnus Carlsen.
So what makes Dhoni such an elite captain?
One could say his ability to lead from the front, like the 2011 ODI world cup final when he promoted himself up the batting order, scoring 91 runs and hitting the matching winning six.
Or it might be the fact that he gets the best out of his weakest players, case in point Joginder Sharma bowling the last over of the 2007 T20 WC final.
There are many such traits of this cricketing genius that make him the icon he is and Gujarat Titans must be wary of that.
One slip up (a dropped catch or a couple of extra runs in an overthrow, one missed DRS appeal) and that could very well be them losing the final.
Dhoni is not just world cricket’s best finisher with the bat but also closes out games with remarkable ease when captaining.
Talking about captaincy, Gujarat’s leader Hardik Pandya is no less. Just recently, he was given the responsibility to captain the Indian T20 team. And this responsibility came, after Gujarat won the IPL last year.
This year too, Gujarat topped the league phase of the tournament. 2023 has been an impeccable season for GT, riding high on Gill, Rashid Khan, Mohammed Shami and Mohit Sharma’s performances.
While Shami, this season’s purple cap holder (28 wickets), gets the new ball to talk, Rashid keeps it tight in the middle-overs and breaks partnerships. Mohit, India’s unheralded bowler from the ODI world cup campaign in 2015, may have faded from the conscience of cricket fans, but this season he has made a commendable comeback. He is miserly in the tough death overs. Mohit is one of the reasons why GT has conceded 200+ totals only thrice this year.
GT’s bowling has more arsenal than just these names. Hardik himself is a fine swing bowler, Noor Ahmad justifies himself as a mystery spinner and young Josh Little from Ireland has taken seven wickets in nine matches this season.
GT’s weakness is its batting. There is a clear over-reliance on Gill, who is the tournament’s highest scorer with 851 runs and that too at a fast clip.
This over-reliance on Gill is this outfit’s biggest threat. ‘Get Gill out and GT will collapse,’ will be CSK’s mantra.
CSK has all its bases covered. Openers Devon Conway and Ruturaj Gaikwad have done the bulk of the scoring and what little opportunities the middle order has had has been best utilised by Shivam Dube who has had a whopping strike rate of 158 this year.
When it comes to CSK’s bowling, word must start with Sri Lankan Matheesha Pathirana whom Dhoni has called ‘special’. Not surprising, as Pathirana specialises in bowling toe crushers at 150kmph.
Fellow Lankan Mahesh Theekshana is the other pillar of CSK’s bowling attack. Pacer Tushar Deshpande’s returns with the ball this season have also been impressive.
This team on paper does not have any particular weakness.
IPL finals trend
Since the play-offs system started in 2011, the team to win the Qualifier 1 match has gone on to lift the trophy nine times. Will this trend hold in 2023 – a CSK win?
GT homeground advantage?
The final will be played at the Narendra Modi Stadium, Motera, Ahmedabad, which is GT’s homeground and this should translate to massive support from the locals. However, there is one hiccup – MSD. Whichever ground in India, Dhoni is the biggest star attraction. The idea of homeground advantage may not hold on Sunday.
Prediction
The tie is equally matched, but CSK are slight favourites.
PREDICTED XIs (including impact player):
Gujarat Titans:
Shubman Gill, Wriddhiman Saha (w), Sai Sudharsan, Vijay Shankar, Hardik Pandya (c), David Miller, Rahul Tewatia, Rashid Khan, Mohammed Shami, Noor Ahmad, Joshua Little, Mohit Sharma.
Chennai Super Kings:
Devon Conway, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Ajinkya Rahane, Ambati Rayudu, Shivam Dube, Moeen Ali, Ravindra Jadeja, Mahendra Singh Dhoni (c&wk), Deepak Chahar, Matheesha Pathirana, Mahesh Theekshana, Tushar Deshpande.
Time: 7:30 PM IST.
Venue: Narendra Modi Stadium, Ahmedabad.
