Former India player turned commentator Aakash Chopra has urged the CSK to make a few changes to their playing XI for their IPL 2025 clash against the DC. He added that even CSK’s fans want them to include Devon Conway in their XI as well.
In a video shared on his YouTube channel ‘Aakash Chopra,’ he said, “Play Devon Conway. Your fans are also saying that it’s enough. You made Rahul Tripathi open, played Deepak Hooda and Vijay Shankar in the middle, and played Jamie Overton and Sam Curran. You have tried everyone, but stop now because you have lost two games back-to-back, and if you lose three, it will become difficult to emerge from that.”
“Whichever two among Devon Conway, Rachin Ravindra and Ruturaj Gaikwad open, they should be your top three. You are doomed as a franchise if they are not your top three. You won’t progress if you still say you need an overseas all-rounder. Start the course correction here. Play Devon Conway as he knows how to bat on slow pitches and scores runs,” he added.
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However, Aakash Chopra also wondered about the sort of pitch the CSK should prepare for Saturday’s game, claiming that they were surprisingly dissatisfied with the pitch used for their last home game as well.
“What sort of pitch will you prepare? The last time you played at home, you said you didn’t understand the pitch and didn’t like it. When you hear other franchises say that, you feel it might be correct, but you feel slightly surprised when Chennai say that in Chennai because it has never happened to date that the curator has not given them the pitch they wanted,” he said.
“Don’t hold the pitch responsible if you don’t play well. If you want, you can make a slightly slow pitch, but remember one thing – Kuldeep (Yadav) and Axar (Patel) will be there in the opposition, and the spin twin will trouble you. So this will be a match against a team where you won’t gain that much by preparing a rank turner or a slow pitch, or at least you will be tested in the same fashion,” Aakash Chopra concluded.
