How CSK put opposites together to become an IPL batting behemoth

There is something odd about the scorecard from the season-opener of IPL 2024.

The three Royal Challengers Bengaluru spinners have bowled five overs between them for just 37 runs. The two fingerspinners have gone for just 13 in three. And yet that's where they stop even though the Chennai Super Kings - Ravindra Jadeja and MS Dhoni in particular - are suspect against spin. That's because of the presence of spin disruptor Shivam Dube, against whom RCB keep bowling their quicks.

Of the 50 balls bowled after Dube's arrival at the wicket, 44 are bowled by the quicks. Dube faces just 13 of the first 31 balls of pace in this period, letting Jadeja score 24 off 16 at the other end, which is a rate quicker than what is required.

Let's imagine the choices the RCB captain has. He can try to shut down Jadeja's end by persisting with spin, but he runs the risk of conceding sixes to Dube, which can end the match in a hurry. So Faf Du Plessis goes for pace, and hopes to get Dube out early so that he can control the rest with spin. Dube, though, plays it smartly and lets Jadeja score runs against a favourable match-up.

CSK have been called old-school in the past by T20 purists. That they go more on vibes and feel than data. Not very innovative, many have called them. What they instead are is this: less trigger-happy, but on the lookout for every small advantage. Even the vibes and their feel for the game are based on data accumulated in the great cricketing minds of Stephen Fleming and Dhoni.

This coming together of a batting order where you can never pin down two batters with the same bowling type is as T20 purist as it can get. It is no accident. When they got together for pre-season last year, CSK had no real bowling attack thanks to injuries. So they looked to compensate with the bat, more so with the Impact Player available.

In Dube and Ajinkya Rahane, they found spin and pace disruptors. Both had to work on their game to become the assets they did. Dhoni played a part in the mindset change of Rahane, who, in the words of Fleming, had forever been told to bat through the innings. Now he was just told to make sure he hits pace and then either hits or gets out trying to hit spin. Dube just practised hitting sixes in the nets.

Since the last IPL, CSK are among the three quickest-scoring sides after years of staying in the middle of the table and winning through bowling. CSK have always been big on batting depth but now they could go even deeper using the impact rule. Then they sprinkled three left-hand batters among their top eight. This year they lost Devon Conway but managed to get what many consider an upgrade on him in Rachin Ravindra, another left-hand batter.

Ravindra provides the explosive foil to the more conservative style of Ruturaj Gaikwad, who sets up to bat for long. Rahane looks to take apart pace, but if the openers bat through the powerplay, CSK can go straight to Dube and Daryl Mitchell, another right-left duo.

In the 2023 IPL, 70.64% of the balls bowled to CSK were delivered to a right-left combination. Delhi Capitals were almost the same as them, and only Punjab Kings fared better. Added to the right-left pairings, CSK have been the most efficient side in pairing complementary batters, who protect their partner against their weakness.

During their second match this year, CSK were faced with Gujarat Titans' Sai Kishore bowling a tidy spell. He was 2-0-13-0 when Rahane tried to hit him out of the ground and got stumped. Immediately Dube came in and took down Kishore, which meant his quota was left uncompleted. Rashid Khan's final over was forced into the 19th.

It was only when the ball swung and seamed for Delhi Capitals' Khaleel Ahmed and Ishant Sharma that CSK were pushed off their plan. Two early wickets meant they were forced to promote Daryl Mitchell ahead of Dube. By the time Dube got in, the Capitals had got three overs of Axar Patel in. CSK still had Rahane to counter Anrich Nortje and Mukesh Kumar, but he fell to a slower ball from Mukesh.

The occasional failure will happen. That is the nature of T20. However, CSK have put together a batting line-up that, while not full of feared hitters, provides a great deal of mitigation against failure. You will have to get both openers out early and then also hope for an early wicket in the middle overs to keep CSK down.

CSK's scoring contribution is also not dominated by a few batters. ESPNcricinfo's Shiva Jayaraman puts it in numbers for us. In IPL 2023 they had 10 players bat in the top eight, with the median player among those ten (the average of the fifth- and sixth-highest scorers) contributing 7.18% of their runs. No team came close to having such little churn among their batters, such an even spread of contributions and also be in the top-two batting sides. The median percentage contribution for RCB was 7.67 but that's also a factor of them using 13 batters in the top eight.

Quietly, without fanfare, CSK have managed to pair batters who can counter a wider range of threats, spreading the scoring and keeping the churn to a minimum. In short, the foundation needed to build the perfect batting innings.