When Chennaiyin clinched the Indian Super League (ISL) title in the 2017-18 season, their Indian midfield combination was a big talking point.
While the rest of the teams did not have the guts to hand over the reins at the centre of the park to all-Indian midfield, the then head coach John Gregory placed immense trust on Anirudh Thapa and Dhanpal Ganesh, who were rock solid throughout the campaign.
Most teams had a foreign anchor in midfield to dictate the tempo of the game. At Chennaiyin, it was the Thapa-Ganesh combination that bore fruit. Two years later, as we look forward to the final of the sixth season of ISL, Chennaiyin have not made a U-turn on their approach one bit.