Ensuring continuity has always been Chennai Super Kings success formula and despite missing out on a play-off berth narrowly, they stuck to their plans. For two days in Jeddah, CSK went after players who played for them last season and those who have been familiar with their set-up in the past and in the overseas leagues. Picking a squad that compliments their home conditions at the MA Chidambaram Stadium has been their strongest suit and at the auctions they did precisely that, bringing two spinners for nearly Rs 20 crore.

Here is how their squad looks.

Ruturaj Gaikwad, Rahul Tripathi, Shaik Rasheed, Deepak Hooda, Andre Siddarth.

MS Dhoni, Devon Conway, Vansh Bedi

Ravindra Jadeja (spin), Shivam Dube (pace), R Ashwin (spin), Sam Curran (pace), Rachin Ravindra (spin), Vijay Shankar (pace), Anshul Kamboj (pace), Jamie Overton (pace), Ramakrishna Ghosh (pace)

Noor Ahmad, Shreyas Gopal

Matheesha Pathirana, Khaleel Ahmed, Kamlesh Nagarkoti, Mukesh Choudhary, Gurjapneet Singh, Nathan Ellis

Have a strong squad that can bring them their sixth title. Out of 25 players, 12 of them are multi-faceted which CSK have always preferred. Over the last three seasons they have preferred having depth in batting and bowling and it will be the case once again next edition as well. They have always been a franchise that builds a squad for their home conditions and have ensured Jadeja and Ashwin will reunite at Chepauk. Then there is also left-arm wrist spinner Noor Ahmad, which means they could choke opponents with their tweakers. In the batting front, instead of going after big name Indian players, they went for those who are hungry to prove a point or two, so in came Rahul Tripathi, Deepak Hooda and Vijay Shankar for middle-order slot. For the overseas all-rounder, they brought back Sam Curran. Tripathi will be used alongside Dube to take down spinners. From not having local Tamil Nadu talent, they now have four in the mix. Beyond Dhoni, they have only Devon Conway as a tested wicketkeeper. The bowling unit has not just variety, but also looks rounded with the addition of Noor and Ellis. What they will miss is a power-hitter in the lower-middle order who can take down pacers.

Beyond Khaleel Ahmed, they don’t have a reliable Indian fast bowler. They tried hard for Mohamed Shami, Deepak Chahar and Mukesh Kumar, but got none of them. Heavily reliant on Theekshana.

1 Ruturaj Gaikwad, 2 Devon Conway/Rachin Ravindra, 3 Rahul Tripathi, 4 Shivam Dube, 5 Deepak Hooda/Vijay Shankar, 6 Sam Curran, 7 Ravindra Jadeja, 8 MS Dhoni, 9 Ravichandran Ashwin, 10 Matheesha Pathirana, 11 Noor Ahmad/Nathan Ellis, 12 Khaleel Ahmed.