Entire tournament to be played in Trinidad with hosts Trinbago Knight Riders looking for fourth title

Gaurav Sundararaman17-Aug-20201:24

Will be strange to play without crowds – Ross Taylor

Can TKR bounce back from last season and win their fourth CPL crown?•Getty Images Lopsided Scheduling
The fact that Trinbago Knight Riders and St Lucia Zouks have Indian ownership has forced not just the CPL to conduct matches to suit the Indian viewership, but the schedule also favours those two franchises.The Knight Riders and Zouks play eight and seven day matches, respectively. The lopsided nature of the schedule is evident when you compare that with Guyana Amazon Warriors and Jamaica Tallawahs, who play just one and three day matches, respectively.This could affect teams in multiple ways especially with rain likely to have an impact on the tournament. For teams like Amazon Warriors, who play nine matches under lights, dew is likely to play a major factor. If it remains dry during day matches, then Knight Riders and Zouks can dominate with their spin-laden bowling attacks.Playoffs format tweaked again
The playoffs format this year will comprise just the two semi-finals and the final without any advantage for the team winning the league stage. There will be one less match compared the four games during the play-offs last year.ESPNcricinfo Ltd Spin to win
Queens Park Oval in Port-of-Spain will host ten matches while the Brian Lara Stadium in Tarouba will stage 23 games. With pitches set to deteriorate rapidly, there is a good chance that spin could play a dominant role. Also, spin has worked well at both the venues: slower bowlers have conceded 6.90 runs per over compared to 8.38 by pace bowlers.Hence there is a good chance that teams such as Barbados Tridents and Knight Riders could field even four spinners in the XI. Get ready to watch some masterclasses by legspinners like Rashid Khan (Tridents), Imran Tahir (Amazon Warriors), Sandeep Lamichhane (Tallawahs) and Zahir Khan (Zouks). No Gayle in CPL 2020
T20′ s leading run-getter and six-hitter will not be part of 2020 season. Having decided to move to the Zouks after a bitter fallout with Tallwahs, Chris Gayle pulled out of the tournament recently, citing family reasons, taking everyone by surprise. As it happens, Gayle is the top scorer in CPL as well, with 2354 runs at an average of 39.23 and a strike rate of 133.44, including four centuries.Needless to say, in a tournament already affected by the pandemic and no crowds expected at least during the league phase, Gayle’s propensity to do the unthinkable could have provided the necessary balm.ALSO READ: Gayle pulls out of CPL 2020Who are the emerging players to watch out for?
The CPL has made it mandatory for each team to give an emerging player a minimum of five games during this season. The rule states that at least one emerging player should make five appearances or multiple players should make five combined appearances. The rule is designed to provide exposure to young, uncapped talent.So, watch out for Jayden Seales (Knight Riders) and Nayeem Young (Tridents) who shot to fame in the Under 19 World Cup earlier this year. Joshua Da Silva from St Kitts & Nevis Patriots, who recently kept wickets as a substitute during the final Test of the England series, is another young player who might have a breakthrough season along with speedster Keon Harding (Tridents).ESPNcricinfo Ltd Tell me about the favourites…
With 2410 T20 caps between them, one can’t really look past Knight Riders, who have won the CPL twice (Trinidad’s one other CPL title was as the Red Steel) and this time will be playing the entire league at home. In terms of experience, if you put together the entire squad of Tridents and Amazon Warriors even then they have fewer matches than Knight Riders whose line-up includes greats like captain Kieron Pollard, Sunil Narine and Dwayne Bravo. They will be coached by Brendon McCullum, who is the third-highest scorer in T20 cricket.This will be McCullum’s second stint as Knight Riders’ coach in the CPL and he will want to make use of this experience before he heads to the UAE to take charge of the other Knight Riders franchise (KKR) in the IPL.Five-time finalists Warriors will miss their regular captain Shoaib Malik, but they remain firm favourites as well. Chris Green has taken over as captain and will have a point to prove after he had been pulled up for suspect action. He has got his action cleared since, but is yet to test it out in top-flight cricket. Green, who plays for Sydney Thunder in the BBL,was the most economical T20 bowler in 2019 and was even picked by Kolkata Knight Riders in the most recent IPL action.As for Tallawahs, they have a power-packed middle order that could spring a surprise. Their gun allrounder Andre Russell will also have a point to prove after having said recently that this could be his last season with the team.

Finding players to perform the roles these giants did will not be an easy task for their franchises

Deivarayan Muthu05-Sep-2020

Suresh Raina
His role
Raina at No. 3 is usually set in stone for the Chennai Super Kings, and he has missed just one match during his ten seasons at the franchise. He has now gone back home to India, but hasn’t quite ruled out a return to the Super Kings camp during the course of the tournament.Back in the day, Raina was a dasher at one-drop, merrily extending his arms and launching both seamers and spinners over his favourite extra-cover region. In recent years, Raina’s form at the Super Kings had cooled off, and he might not be the force he once was, but was a key part of the Super Kings plans.Filling the gap
The Super Kings haven’t named a replacement for him yet, but Maharashtra and India A batsman Ruturaj Gaikwad, who is believed to have impressed MS Dhoni at the Chepauk camp in March earlier this year, is being talked up as a possible No. 3. If Gaikwad isn’t the preferred choice, Ambati Rayudu is likely to take up the job, with Shane Watson and Faf du Plessis set to open the innings.If teams tend to attack Super Kings’ band of right-hand batsmen with legspin, they could look to separate them by bumping Ravindra Jadeja or Sam Curran or Mitchell Santner up the order. Jadeja has actually batted at No. 3 in the past, just four times, hitting 91 runs at a strike rate of 140. Curran, too, has batted there in eight innings, making 230 runs at a strike rate of nearly 144 – and he had also opened the batting once for Kings XI Punjab last IPL. In the 2017 T20 Blast in England, Santner was also promoted up the order to No. 3 by Worcestershire.ALSO READ: Who can replace Suresh Raina at Chennai Super Kings?

Harbhajan Singh
His role
In the first qualifier against Sunrisers Hyderabad in 2018, Dhoni didn’t use Singh as a bowler at all. However, overall, Singh’s accuracy has been central to Super Kings’ attack in the past two seasons. He was often Dhoni’s go-to spinner in the powerplay, claiming 11 wickets in 16 innings during that phase at an economy rate of 8.40. Not to forget all the experience and consistency; he is the only bowler to have an economy rate of less than 7.5 in eight IPL seasons.Filling the gap
While the Super Kings have a variety of options to replace Raina within their squad itself, they don’t have a specialist offspinner in their roster to fill the Singh-sized hole. However, they do have legspinners Piyush Chawla and Karn Sharma, and left-arm fingerspinner R Sai Kishore in the group. Tamil Nadu spinners M Abhinav (legspinner) and Aushik Srinivas (left-arm fingerspinner) are in the net-bowling contingent, but neither of them bowl offspin. Jalaj Saxena, who was part of the Delhi Capitals last year, could be good like-for-like replacement for Singh, if the Super Kings are looking for one.Lasith Malinga is the most successful bowler in IPL history•BCCI

Lasith Malinga
His role
Mumbai have a surfeit of top-notch pace options in their set-up – Trent Boult can swing the new ball, Mitchell McClenaghan thrives on bowling in the powerplay, Jasprit Bumrah is a world beater, Hardik Pandya is working his way back from injury, and there are Nathan Coulter-Nile and Dhawal Kulkarni in the mix too. However, they are most certainly going to miss Malinga’s vast experience and big-game pedigree. The 37-year-old has stepped up for Mumbai in multiple finals and is also known as a master tactician much like his captain Rohit Sharma. Malinga usually bowls the tough overs – both in the powerplay and at the death – last delivering Mumbai an unprecedented fourth title.Filling the gap
Mumbai have signed James Pattinson as Malinga’s replacement, but the Australia quick is yet to make his IPL debut (although he has been part of the Kolkata Knight Riders before). Pattinson brings with him extra pace and hit-the-deck bustle, which could prove effective even on the traditionally sluggish tracks in the UAE. With Quinton de Kock and Kieron Pollard being certain starters among the overseas names, McClenaghan, Boult, Coulter-Nile and Pattinson will have to tussle for the other two slots.

Chris Woakes
His role
Woakes was largely used as a death-bowling allrounder by Royal Challengers Bangalore and the Knight Riders. Fourteen of his 25 wickets in the IPL have come in the last five overs. In the pre-pandemic world, Kagiso Rabada had been ruled out of the India tour earlier this year owing to injury, and might not have been available had the IPL happened at its original slot. So the Capitals would have looked at Woakes as a first XI option. Plus, being a capable batsman lower down the order, Woakes would likely have played a few matches with teams likely to rotate their players considering the heat in the UAE.Filling the gap
Rabada is now fit and the Capitals have drafted in Anrich Nortje as Woakes’ replacement. Nortje had missed IPL 2019 for the Knight Riders, and then the World Cup because of a shoulder injury, but he’s also back, and can regularly clock speeds north of 140kph. So Woakes’ absence might not be too big a setback for the Capitals.

Others to give IPL 2020 a miss
Jason Roy: He is huge for England in white-ball cricket, but would have found it hard to get in the XI for the Capitals, who have Shikhar Dhawan, Prithvi Shaw, Ajinkya Rahane and Shreyas Iyer as their Indian opening options. The team played it smart by picking up Australian left-arm quick Daniel Sams in Roy’s place.Kane Richardson: The Australian quick wanted to be home for the birth of his first child, and legspinner Adam Zampa has stepped in for Royal Challengers Bangalore. A sensible move from the team, with all matches to be played on slower pitches across the UAE.Harry Gurney: A shoulder injury has put Gurney out of action, and the Knight Riders might miss him, though they have Pat Cummins and Lockie Ferguson in their ranks. Crucially for the team, they will have Chris Green available – there were question marks over his action, but he’s bowling, and bowling very well, in the CPL.

More teams will be faced with first-choice players pulling out, and it could result in further lopsided contests

Mohammad Isam22-Jan-2021If any part of Jason Mohammed really hoped that his West Indies side would follow what India did to Australia on their own tour of Bangladesh, it’s all gone now. They are 0-2 in a three-match ODI series, never once posing a threat to the opposition.Their batting in both games was almost identically poor, with the middle-order were forced to rebuild after the top-order fell cheaply. They couldn’t quite balance between caution and aggression. And while their bowlers impressed in patches, they were never equipped to defend totals of 122 and 148.Meanwhile, Bangladesh hardly put a foot wrong, in either game. The spinners dominated proceedings after the pace attack gave them early breakthroughs. The batsmen were understandably watchful even though they were chasing small targets. There was professionalism and consistency on display, the least you could expect from a team that has targeted direct entry to the 2023 World Cup.West Indies have now lost their last seven ODIs to Bangladesh. Things may have been different had their first-choice picks made themselves available for this series. But that doesn’t change the fact that they have just given up 30 points in the race to World Cup qualification.Still, coach Phil Simmons had urged the newcomers to put up performances that make it hard for the regular players to replace them in the next series. Covid-19 basically gave them opportunities that were becoming hard to come by. But now it is more than likely that many of those missing seniors will ever so smoothly regain their place in the ODI team.Akeal Hosein has been one of West Indies’ few bright spots on this tour•AFP via Getty ImagesWhether teams and boards like it or not, this is going to be a feature of international cricket until the pandemic ends. West Indies are just the first among the international teams to suffer the consequences of traveling regularly during these times. It is natural to for players to feel so mentally drained that they choose to skip tours. Other teams will be faced with this dilemma soon enough.West Indies had a couple of pull-outs for their visits to England and New Zealand last year, but for this Bangladesh trip, several of their top players decided to stay away. Add to that, Romario Shepherd testing Covid-19 positive before departure, and Hayden Walsh Jr testing positive after landing in Bangladesh. They haven’t replaced him in the ODI squad officially, which leaves them with only 14 men to choose from, and no lead spinner.To go back to January 19 for a minute, the touring West Indies side couldn’t be faulted for feeling inspired by India, who broke Australia’s incredible stronghold in Brisbane, and won the Test series 2-1. They are an inexperienced bunch too, trying to beat an opponent with a formidable home record. But that’s where the comparisons end.India’s domestic circuit includes a tournament like the IPL and they have an A-team system that gives its cricketers an almost international level-like platform. Mohammed Siraj, Washington Sundar, Shardul Thakur, Navdeep Saini and T Natarajan may have only dreamt of forming a bowling attack together in a crucial Test in Australia, but when the chance came, they played like they belonged.India’s selectors and team management now know that even if Jasprit Bumrah, Ishant Sharma, Mohammad Shami and Umesh Yadav are injured, they have four more to take their place. There will be the initial nerves and perhaps bit of struggle, but they wouldn’t have many teething problems, even at the highest level.West Indies’ second string has given very little evidence of such promise. Their lack of overall experience and first-hand knowledge of Bangladeshi pitches, and a short lead-up into the ODI series, have worked against them. But performing out of their comfort zone, especially in overseas conditions, is how top-class cricketers are made.So far however, Mohammed’s West Indies are a stop-gap team, one that is fulfilling their board’s commitment to the BCB to tour Bangladesh. There hasn’t been much to write home about their performance. However, there is a very important message for every international team: keep up your standards. A small group of top cricketers won’t do in this pandemic. Widen your talent pool. Otherwise, you’ll have to face the consequences.

Key players, squads, schedule and salaries – all your questions answered in one place

Sruthi Ravindranath03-Nov-20208:20

Women’s T20 Challenge: A stage for young Indian talent to shine

When and where will the Women’s T20 challenge take place?This tournament, like previous editions, will take place during the IPL playoffs. The three teams – Supernovas, Velocity and Trailblazers – are set to play three matches between November 4 and 9 in Sharjah, with the final scheduled on November 9 at the same venue. Three matches start at 7.30 IST (6pm local time). The only day game will be the second one, which will begin at 3.30pm IST (2pm local time), on November 5. Like the eight IPL franchises, the women’s contingent also underwent a mandatory six-day quarantine at the team hotel in addition to being tested at regular intervals. They were allowed to train only after that.Why is this year’s edition important?Though short, this tournament is significant for women’s cricket. The T20 World Cup earlier this year was a huge success and was expected to have a knock-on effect for the women’s game around the globe. Last year’s T20 Challenge was in Jaipur and had a good crowd turnout. However, the coronavirus pandemic meant everything came to a standstill. The India Women’s team hasn’t played any competitive cricket since the T20 World Cup final against Australia on March 8, and it increasingly began to look like the players wouldn’t have any top-flight cricket for the remainder of the year. This tournament, then, could be one of the few competitive games they play.For the longest time, it was also unclear if the tournament was on until the BCCI confirmed the squads in October. This could have probably been a bigger event – the BCCI said in February it would involve four teams – had it not been for the pandemic. Mithali Raj, one of the three captains, welcomed the tournament, despite its clash with Australia’s WBBL, calling it a “relief”.The T20 Challenge is a platform for talented players to make a mark and spend time with non-India internationals. Teenager Shafali Verma was among the brightest players in last year’s tournament; it got her a maiden T20I call-up for the series against South Africa later that year and she has continued to impress since.Smriti Mandhana goes for the big one•BCCIA title sponsorFor the first time ever, the tournament will have an exclusive sponsor, with Jio bagging the rights. Getting a title sponsor could hint at the BCCI possibly exploring the branding potential of the tournament. If successful, it could mean bigger things to come.How does the clash with the WBBL affect the T20 Challenge?The WBBL, which began on October 25, features several of the game’s top players from Australia, New Zealand and South Africa; all of them will miss the WT20 Challenger. Players from Australia – the largest overseas contingent in the one-off exhibition match in 2018 – and South Africa had missed the 2019 edition too. However, Bangladesh, West Indies, Sri Lanka and England players will feature this season. Seven of the 12 overseas players will feature in the tournament for the first time.What are the three teams like, how do they stack up against each other? Smriti Mandhana, Harmanpreet Kaur and Mithali Raj will once again lead the three teams – Trailblazers, Supernovas and Velocity.Two-time champions Supernovas have a strong Indian batting line-up led by Kaur, with Jemimah Rodrigues, who was Player of the Series in 2019, offspinner Anuja Patil and wicketkeeper-batter Taniya Bhatia. Their spinners Poonam Yadav and Radha Yadav are among the top 10 in the T20 bowling charts. Their overseas contingent has Sri Lankan captain Chamari Atapattu and former captain Shashikala Siriwardene, experienced West Indies seam bowler Shekera Selman and the South Africa quick Ayabonga Khaka.Supernovas squad: Harmanpreet Kaur (capt), Jemimah Rodrigues (vice-capt), Chamari Atapattu, Priya Punia, Anuja Patil, Radha Yadav, Taniya Bhatia (wk), Shashikala Siriwardene, Poonam Yadav, Shakera Selman, Arundhati Reddy, Pooja Vastrakar, Ayushi Soni, Ayabonga Khaka, Muskan Malik
Coach: Mamatha MabenLast year’s runners-up Velocity are a mix of youth and experience. Captain Raj aside, they have the likes of middle-order batter Veda Krishnamurthy, wicketkeeper-batter Sushma Verma and pace-bowling allrounder Shikha Pandey, all India caps. They will team up with South Africa’s Sune Luus, New Zealand’s Leigh Kasperek, England’s Danni Wyatt and Bangladesh’s Jahanara Alam. The uncapped Meghna Joshi has been named a replacement for India pacer Mansi Joshi, who had tested positive for Covid-19. They also have Verma and 21-year-old uncapped offspinner Sushree Dibyadarshini.Velocity squad: Mithali Raj (capt), Veda Krishnamurthy (vice-capt), Shafali Verma, Sushma Verma (wk), Ekta Bisht, Shikha Pandey, Devika Vaidya, Sushree Dibyadarshini, Manali Dakshini, Leigh Kasperek, Danielle Wyatt, Sune Luus, Jahanara Alam, M Anagha, Meghna Singh
Coach: Suman SharmaMandhana’s Trailblazers have England’s Sophie Ecclestone, the No. 1-ranked T20I bowler, West Indies allrounder Deandra Dottin, Bangladesh captain Salma Khatun, and India fast bowler Jhulan Goswami in their ranks. They also have Thailand batter Nattakan Chantam, who made an impression with her strokeplay during her team’s maiden T20 World Cup appearance in Australia earlier this year. The Indian contingent includes allrounder Deepti Sharma, opener Punam Raut and youngsters Harleen Deol and Richa Ghosh.Trailblazers squad: Smriti Mandhana (capt), Deepti Sharma (vice-capt), Punam Raut, Richa Ghosh, D Hemalatha, Nuzhat Parween (wk), Rajeshwari Gayakwad, Harleen Deol, Jhulan Goswami, Simran Bahadur, Salma Khatun, Sophie Ecclestone, Nattakan Chantam, Deandra Dottin, Kashvee Gautam
Coach: Nandita AdhiyaShafali Verma clubs one to the off side•BCCIWhat is the schedule of matches?Supernovas vs Velocity, November 4
Velocity vs Trailblazers, November 5
Trailblazers vs Supernovas, November 7
Final, November 9The second game is the only one which takes place on an IPL match day, with the first Qualifier set to take place on November 5 between the Mumbai Indians and the Delhi Capitals. That is why this will be the only day game in the Women’s T20 Challenge.Who are the uncapped India players to look out for?Kashvee Gautam (Trailblazers): The 17-year-old Chandigarh pacer made headlines after she picked up all ten wickets – including a hat-trick – in an innings in the Women’s U-19 One-Day Trophy earlier this year. Having done well in U-19 and U-23 tournaments before, this is her first appearance in the T20 Challenge.Ayushi Soni (Supernovas): The 20-year-old Delhi allrounder captained a successful India B side at the U-23 Challenger Trophy last year.Sushree Dibyadarshini (Velocity): The offspinner made a mark on her T20 Challenge debut last year when she snuffed out West Indies’ Stafanie Taylor in her second over and finished with figures of 3-1-14-1. The 23-year-old features regularly for India A.Can we expect big scores?The Sharjah pitch was a batting paradise for teams in the first half of IPL 2020, which saw totals in excess of 200. However, there was a marked slowing down of the surface as the tournament went on.How much are the players being paid?ESPNcricinfo understands that the match fee of a section of overseas players is estimated to be around USD 2500 per player per game, and a daily allowance of around INR 5000 INR (USD 67 approx.). All Indians, uncapped or otherwise, were understood to have been paid a base amount of at least INR 1 lakh last year as match fee, but the numbers for this year are not known.

A number of things went awry with their batting strategy last year. They need to fix those this season

Deivarayan Muthu05-Apr-2021The Chennai Super Kings had too many leaks in their ship at the same time in the last IPL and they ended up second from the bottom – failing to qualify for the playoffs for the first time in their 11 seasons in the league.Nearly five months later, a new season begins but the Super Kings have the same old problems. Here’s how they can steady their vessel and perhaps steer it back to the playoffs.Don’t be too rigid
In their five-wicket win over the Mumbai Indians in last season’s opener, CSK promoted left-handers Ravindra Jadeja and Sam Curran up the order “to intimidate the bowler”, according to captain MS Dhoni, but they weren’t as flexible with their line-up overall. Curran was later promoted to open in the second half of the season, and while he showed attacking enterprise, oppositions countered by peppering him with the short stuff. Perhaps Curran had too much to do, having also been tasked with bowling the tough overs in the powerplay and the death.Related

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The Super Kings kept giving an ageing Shane Watson and a woefully out-of-form Kedar Jadhav games in the hope that they would come good at some point. While the team could afford such a strategy when their home games were at Chepauk, it hurt them in the UAE, where they couldn’t adapt to the conditions.They will likely face a similar challenge this season, with eight of their 14 leagues fixtures scheduled at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai and the Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru. The average first-innings IPL score at the Wankhede in the past couple of seasons is 173 and at the Chinnaswamy 182 during this period. CSK need to tear up their old template of leaving it late in the game and instead try to maximise at the top in these high-scoring venues. These two grounds, along with the Eden Gardens in Kolkata, where CSK are set to play two matches, also don’t favour spin, so they may have to rejig their bowling attack as well.Make the most of Jadeja’s batting
Despite being in top batting shape and playing in the absence of Suresh Raina, Jadeja got to face only 135 balls last season, making 232 runs at a strike rate just under 172.The season opener against Mumbai aside, Jadeja didn’t get an opportunity to bat in the top five. In the lower middle order, he took over Dhoni’s role as CSK’s finisher, but Jadeja has expanded his range in the last few years and can be much more. CSK could instead consider using Curran in that finisher role. And Shardul Thakur could also be relied upon to clear the boundary in the slog overs.It remains to be seen if the thumb injury Jadeja sustained during the Australia tour earlier this year has an impact on his IPL role, but there’s a strong case for the Super Kings to make better use of his batting prowess.How about Moeen Ali as an opener?
In England’s competition-heavy T20I side, Ali is only a spare batsman and spinner. But at CSK, he could potentially play a bigger role and provide an option to fill a Watson-sized hole at the top. After all, Ali first made a name for himself as an opener, clattering a 49-ball century for Worcestershire in the Pro40 back in 2007. More recently in the T20 Blast in England in 2018, when Worcestershire won the title, and in 2019 when they were runners-up, Ali asserted himself as a robust top-order batsman.ESPNcricinfo LtdHe is no power-hitting opener like Chris Gayle or Jason Roy, but finds a way to regularly score over the top with his velvet-smooth bat swing, which makes him a useful option in the first six overs. Faf du Plessis did the job for the Super Kings in the powerplay in the UAE, but Ali’s left-hand batting and defensive offspin could serve them better this season.In 2018, the Super Kings transformed a certain allrounder who had been batting in the middle order for the Royal Challengers Bangalore into an opener, and you know how that turned out. Three years later, will history repeat itself?Crack the combination early
Last season CSK coach Stephen Fleming thought about promoting Curran up the order and picking Imran Tahir in the first half of the season, but Covid-related complications, the unavailability of Raina, and injuries to Ambati Rayudu and Dwayne Bravo messed with his plans. By the time CSK identified their most balanced XI for UAE, they were already out of contention for the playoffs.Raina’s return, Robin Uthappa’s transfer from the Rajasthan Royals, and offspinner allrounder K Gowtham’s signing all offer Dhoni the Indian cushion he has been used to having with CSK sides of the past. Last season he often had only five bowling options to work with, which contributed to the side’s failings. But this year, having so many options could also leave them in a flux if they don’t figure out their XI early in the tournament.Uthappa has said he isn’t comfortable in the middle order and has expressed his interest to open at CSK. That might mean Ruturaj Gaikwad, who showed spark at the top and also likes the ball coming onto the bat, might have to drop down to No. 3 or 4 if the Super Kings pair Ali up with Uthappa at the top.Which brings us to the Raina question. Where does he stand in the set-up after pulling out of the entire tournament in 2020? Even if the team management welcomes him back into the XI, does he still have runs in him? He has played only five competitive games since the 2019 IPL and arrived late to CSK’s pre-season IPL camp, which began on March 8 this year.