IPL 2021: “I think their hands are tied a little bit” – Scott Styris feels Chennai Super Kings are in ‘big trouble’

IPL 2021: “I think their hands are tied a little bit” – Scott Styris feels Chennai Super Kings are in ‘big trouble’

Scott Styris and MS Dhoni

Chennai Super Kings

Chennai Super Kings (CSK) announced their list of retained players for the 2021 edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) and decided to retain a major part of the squad from the previous season. The franchise endured a horror time in UAE in the 2020 IPL where they missed out on making it to the playoffs for the first time ever in their history. While it was expected that a massive revamp might happen in 2021, the same hasn’t transpired.

CSK chose to released only one overseas player – the retired Shane Watson, meaning they will have only one overseas slot available in the auction. Other than the Australian and Harbhajan Singh, underperformers Piyush Chawla, Kedar Jadhav, Murali Vijay and Monu Singh were also let go.

‘I think they are in big trouble’ – Scott Styris

Scott Styris

Former New Zealand all-rounder and CSK star, Scott Styris spoke on the Star Sports show Cricket Connected about CSK’s retentions and said, “I think their hands are tied a little bit. In reality, the storyline for the last three years has been about old is gold and ageing side that CSK has but that was always going to come back and bite them really and that reason for that is you still need the younger generation coming through. MS Dhoni mentioned that. He spoke about handing it over to the next generation. Where that comes from, I don’t know.”

He further talked about how the retention plan has left a lot to be desired saying, “I think they are in big trouble. The players they released were expected to be the older players in the squad. I think a couple are there but who are the backbones? Where is that spine coming from for CSK? When you look at that top order, they’re not playing a lot of cricket, so I think CSK have a lot of work ahead of them. The auction is a big part of that, not only for this year but next too.”

The auction for the 2021 IPL is set to take place in mid-February.

Also Read: IPL 2021: Gautam Gambhir slams Royal Challengers Bangalore for releasing 10 players