Former India player turned veteran commentator Aakash Chopra has applauded the Chennai Super Kings (CSK) for restricting the Mumbai Indians (MI) batters in their IPL 2025 clash on a slow pitch. He added that CSK have formulated the template for their home games this season as well.
In a video shared on his YouTube channel ‘Aakash Chopra’, he said, “What do the Chennai Super Kings do? They shop as per their wish and then change things as per their shopping. What was the biggest thread I saw? Get ready for a very different template. The entire world is going to the moon and some people are thinking of going to Mars, we are saying ‘Abki baar 300 paar’, but they are saying ‘wait’. They are saying they have spent almost ₹40 crore to acquire three spinners, so they would play on slow and sluggish pitches, that they would play a slightly retro style of T20 cricket. Going with three spinners on a slightly slowish sluggish pitch and trapping the opposing team with spin, I think this is the template we are looking at.”
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“Noor Ahmad picked up four wickets. Tum aa gaye ho, Noor aa gaya hai. No one is able to understand him. They put so much money that the Gujarat Titans couldn’t RTM him. They had made up their mind that they needed him at any cost, and it made a lot of sense,” Chopra again shared.
Meanwhile, Aakash Chopra also praised Khaleel Ahmed for striking the early blows and Ruturaj Gaikwad for leading the side quite well against Mumbai Indians as well.
“Khaleel at the start. They got him for less than ₹5 crore. They knew they needed Khaleel as left-arm pace is required. He dismissed both the openers – Rohit (Sharma) and Ryan Rickelton. Then (Ravichandran) Ashwin was introduced within the powerplay. Ruturaj captained extremely well. To not let Mumbai’s batting reach 175, that just was brilliant from the Chennai Super Kings. Dhoni sahab – what do you do? 4G, 5G, but the fastest is Dhoni ji. The guy doesn’t take his hands back. Suryakumar Yadav wouldn’t have gotten out if it was some other keeper,” Aakash Chopra concluded.
