New Delhi, March 13 (IANS) Former Indian spinner Piyush Chawla feels that Chennai Super Kings’ (CSK) home ground MA Chidambaram Stadium’s pitch will suit the batting style of Sanju Samson, who is gearing up for his first season with the five-time champions.

Samson is coming to the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2026 on the back of some great knocks in the recently concluded ICC T20 World Cup, where the wicketkeeper batter scored back-to-back half-centuries in the Super8s match against the West Indies, the semi-final vs England and the Summit clash against New Zealand. According to Chawla, Samson getting in good touch before the IPL 2026 is a blessing for CSK.

“Sanju Samson is a match-winner in himself. He proved his doubters wrong with three back-to-back impactful knocks against West Indies, England and New Zealand in the T20 World Cup. CSK will be very happy with his form because Samson has peaked right before the start of the IPL. That is great news for their fans. Coming to Chennai, the way the wicket plays there will definitely suit his game,” Chawla said on JioHotstar.

Samson has been traded from the Rajasthan Royals to CSK in place of Ravindra Jadeja and Sam Curran before the IPL 2026 auction. Samson has played 177 IPL matches and scored 4707 runs at an average of 30.95.

Chawla added that Samson’s aggressive batting style will help cure CSK’s slow opening problem. According to the 37-year-old, Samson will open with India’s U19 captain Ayush Mhatre, who impressed with his skills last season.

“Opening the innings, his aggressive style will benefit CSK a lot. Last season, they struggled to get quick starts. Only after Ayush Mhatre arrived did CSK start scoring runs in the powerplay. Now, with Samson in, their opening problems will finally be solved. They need that experienced opener alongside Ayush Mhatre. Samson’s trade move to CSK is going to be a blockbuster one,” he said.

–IANS

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