Former India player turned veteran commentator Aakash Chopra has said that the lack of firepower in the Chennai Super Kings (CSK) batting as one of their potential weaknesses heading into IPL 2025. He also added that their batting lineup comprises mostly ‘stable’ players and does not have too many big hitters as well. CSK retained Ruturaj Gaikwad (₹18 crore), Ravindra Jadeja (₹18 crore), Matheesha Pathirana (₹13 crore), Shivam Dube (₹12 crore), and MS Dhoni (₹4 crore) ahead of the auction as well. They spent ₹54.95 crore at the mega auction to buy 20 players to complete a full-strength 25-member squad as well.
In a video shared on his YouTube channel ‘Aakash Chopra,’ he said, “Batting firepower – that is one question, it stands out like a sore thumb. Are they a batting powerhouse? Do they have the finishing strength? Ruturaj Gaikwad is a quality player, but he is your stable player. Devon Conway is also your stable player,” he said.
“Then they have taken Rahul Tripathi and after that, Shivam Dube and one of Vijay Shankar and Deepak Hooda, and then Ravindra Jadeja, MS Dhoni, Sam Curran, Noor Ahmad, and R Ashwin. So there is a lot of depth in batting, but the hitting ability is not as good as a lot of teams have in T20 cricket,” he said again.
In the same video, Aakash Chopra chose death bowling as another potential issue for the Chennai Super Kings ahead of the IPL 2025.
“The second question is about the death bowling. Deepak Chahar didn’t use to bowl much at the death. So I wouldn’t say his loss is that huge for them to struggle. However, there is no one that good to bowl with Pathirana. Tushar Deshpande actually did alright. He has played a very important role at the death,” he said. “Khaleel Ahmed will have to play the same role, but Khaleel’s numbers for Delhi were not that good in the last four overs. Khaleel is outstanding with the new ball. I really rate him highly. I think he is at the peak of his bowling powers, but he has been expensive in the death overs. They will feel Tushar Deshpande’s absence,” Aakash Chopra concluded.
