A cursory glance at Chennai Super Kings‘ Instagram page will show you copious videos of the team’s batsmen hitting the ball into the roof of stadiums and swishing the bat around purposefully in the net sessions. One of them has a helmetless MS Dhoni, sporting some real swagger, tonking one into the stands with the caption: “Let the whistles travel for 109, 114…metres!”

It’s interesting because the CSK known to fans is a side that embraces the sneaky way to ace a franchise league. Over the years, CSK built a fortress in Chepauk, using their experienced batsmen to just about get to par totals and then unleashing their array of spinners, expertly administered by Dhoni himself from behind the stumps, to weave a web around opponents.

They invariably won a large chunk of their home games and squeezed in a few wins in the away fixtures to get to the play-offs. From there, it was a battle of nerves, one that Dhoni had specialised in, and it brought them success. The template was very similar to Dhoni’s own batting mantra.

Thala finishes off in style! #WhistlePodu #Yellove 🦁💛 pic.twitter.com/G81vmRPmT3

— Chennai Super Kings (@ChennaiIPL) April 2, 2021

Labelled ‘Dad’s Army’ and mocked for their archaic T20 approach, Chennai copped a lot of flak, but they continued to find success, largely built on their success at home where they won 41 of their 60 matches. Deprived of their treasured home hunting ground, CSK faltered big time in IPL 2020, finishing seventh on the points table and only just about escaping the wooden spoon.

They had the second worst strike-rate and hit the second fewest sixes in IPL 2020. They had the slowest scoring rate in the powerplay and the second worst in the middle overs. In the death, the fifth gear almost always came when the game had slipped out of their radar, leading to obvious social media vilification at questionable post-match comments.

They stuck to the majority of their players ahead of IPL 2021, added a few others fitting their template at the auction, and now find themselves in another quandary with no team playing its matches at home. Another difficult season stares them on the face, but it needn’t really be that bad for CSK.

Purposely or not, CSK have built a squad that might just muster enough depth to allow them to shed their conservatism and get into the modern world of T20 batting. They have batting depth, so much so that the player with India’s best batting strike-rate in T20I history – Shardul Thakur – could potentially bat at No.11 for them.

Top-order options galore in the squad with Suresh Raina returning to join a pool of Faf du Plessis, Ambati Rayudu, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Narayan Jagadeesan and Robin Uthappa among others. There are all-rounders in plenty in the middle-order with Moeen Ali and Krishnappa Gowtham bought for whopping amounts at the auction, primarily to make up for the lack of off-spinners.

Their frontline Indian bowling options – Ravindra Jadeja, Shardul and Deepak Chahar are all pretty handy with the bat. Among overseas all-rounders, there’s the favourite Dwayne Bravo and the exciting Sam Curran aside from Moeen.

With Lungi Ngidi in doubt for the first game after having just landed from South Africa, Chennai could have a line-up with enough and more bowling options that bat till No.11.

A fantasy XI for their first fixture: Ruturaj Gaikwad, Faf du Plessis, Suresh Raina, Ambati Rayudu, Moeen Ali, MS Dhoni, Sam Curran, Ravindra Jadeja, Dwayne Bravo, Deepak Chahar, Shardul Thakur.

This line-up has six bowling options aside from Suresh Raina’s part-time off-spin and bat till No.11. The likes of Uthappa and Gowtham are also available as alternatives for some of those names.

With such batting depth, CSK have no reason to stick to their primitive method and obsess about banking on a final flourish to win matches. Instead, with their first five games on the flat Wankhede wicket, CSK could, with a more proactive approach, start the season off rather well if they focus on using that batting depth and desert the wicket-preservation mode.

But again, it comes down to how long those whistles travel and how often.