Cricket and India

Chennai Super Kings, under the leadership of Mahendra Singh Dhoni, finished as the second best team in IPL 2008. They started off very well, but the departure of players like Matthew Hayden and Michael Hussey did leave the team at a poor state. They just managed to pull off a spot in the semi-finals.

While the top two spots and bottom two spots were easily decided, there was a real fight for the middle 4 slots. Rajasthan Royals finished on top with 22 points, followed by Kings XI Punjab who had 20 points. The teams from third to sixth position were separated from each other by a mere point. Chennai Super Kings (16 points), Delhi Daredevils (15 points), Mumbai Indians (14 points) and Kolkata Knight Riders (13 points) occupied those positions.

Chennai Super Kings would love to do better this time around. With the addition of Andrew Flintoff to their squad, they should feel better. The Chennai Super Kings squad for the second edition of DLF-IPL tournament, to be held in South Africa, is as follows:

Indian Players:
1. Mahendra Singh Dhoni (Captain)
2. Suresh Raina
3. Parthiv Patel (Wicket keeper)
4. L. Balaji
5. S. Badrinath
6. Joginder Sharma
7. Murali Vijay
8. Manpreet Gony
9. P. Amarnath
10. Vidyut Sivaramakrishnan
11. Srikkanth Aniruddha (Son of Krishnamachari Srikkanth)
12. R. Ashwin
13. Napoleon Einstein
14. Shadab Jakati
15. Viraj Kadbe
16. Arun Karthik
17. Suresh Kumar
18. Abhinav Mukund
19. Sudeep Tyagi

Foreign Players:
1. Stephen Fleming, New Zealand
2. Jacob Oram, New Zealand
3. Andrew Flintoff, England
4. Matthew Hayden, Australia
5. Michael Hussey, Australia
6. George Bailey, Australia
7. Albie Morkel, South Africa
8. Makhaya Ntini, South Africa
9. Muttiah Muralitharan, Sri Lanka
10. Thilan Thushara, Sri Lanka

Other IPL Squads:
Bangalore Royal Challengers