What went wrong for CSK?
If it was not for Mumbai Indians’ slightly worse Net Run Rate, CSK would have been the first side in IPL history to go from winning the league to finishing last. Yes, you could say that the mega-auction deconstructed their perfect formula of a winning side, but every team went through the same. CSK just didn’t rebuild as well as the other sides. However, when looking back on a season like this, it is important not to judge through hindsight but only to rue the mistakes that could have been easily prevented. So, let’s go through the biggest mistakes CSK made this year starting with…
The Auction
CSK surprisingly retained well. If Dhoni was staying. It meant he was guaranteed a spot on the retention list. Before the season, Jadeja was the best all-rounder in the world so was also guaranteed. CSK then had to decide between Faf, Moeen, Gaikwad, Chahar, and Thakur (Hazlewood may have caused some discussion after his T20 World Cup performance). CSK had to go with Gaikwad, a 24-year-old who had just won the Orange Cap, Gold Dust. This meant they had to pick an overseas player to complete their list but with Moeen’s exceptional form and Gaikwad already retained, Ali seemed the better choice. Then came the auction. Now in hindsight, Chahar was a big waste of money and could end up coming back to bite them in the future if he doesn’t return at the same quality, but his injury took place after the auction. Chahar is an excellent bowler, and his batting has improved but was he worth more than Livingstone, Shreyas, and Harshal? After this huge spend on Chahar, CSK still came away with the second-largest remaining purse after Punjab. They could have pushed more for Hazlewood or Faf if they weren’t planning on signing bigger names. The list of unsold names is staggering so it is not only CSKs mistake to not pick up players like Shakib, Lynn, de Grandhomme, and Smith. CSK did well to not be tempted to go after Raina even though he seems to be their good luck charm as they have never made the playoffs without him. They also went big on Rayudu and Uthappa, who had average years with only 2 big innings between them. CSK bought 8 players at the base price, the most by any team which is why it is so difficult to understand why they did not go for another big name to fill the massive void in their bowling or their middle order. It seems that everything CSK did well in the auction, failed later on.
Selection
It is very difficult to criticize selection without using hindsight but sometimes the mistakes are too obvious to ignore. Rajvardhan Hangargekar was arguably India’s most exciting prospect from the U19 World Cup. Dhoni mentioned that he “has the pace but he needs to be given enough time to groom and improve in certain areas” if there is one thing that we have learned from the IPL is that it is the best place to give players a chance to learn and grow. CSK themselves should know that best with recent players like Gaikwad and Choudhary flourishing due to their experiences in the IPL. On top of that, they gave chances to players like Simarjeet, Solanki, Jaggi, and Pathirana. He was a great replacement for Deepak, especially with the bat but CSK played favorites with others who didn’t prove themselves enough.
Devon Conway was unfairly treated this year and dropping a debutant after his first game destroys player’s confidence, but Conway bounced back halfway through the season with back-to-back-to-back 50s. He’s one of the best replacements for Faf, they just need to learn to trust him.
Chris Jordan’s pick-up at the auction was questionable, but I assumed he would be a backup to Pretorius who was a backup for Bravo. To be fair to Jordan, his first game was great but he followed it up with two horrible performances against Sunrisers and RCB, but for some reason, he stayed in the team against the best team in the league, Gujarat where he put on the 6th most expensive bowling performance of this year’s IPL without even finishing his 4 overs. He was already in poor form going for 10.46 runs per over in T20s, this year.
There were also mistakes made in the selection of the batting lineup from 2–7 as Rayudu, Uthappa, Moeen, Jadeja, Dube, Dhoni, Bravo, and Conway often were batting in the wrong places or weren't selected at all even though they had performed well.
Santner has an IPL economy of 6.93 and strikes the ball at 108 but still struggles to stay in the team for 2 games in a row. When he does play, he is completely misused.
Theekshana somehow did not keep his spot on the team even though he took 12 wickets in just 9 games. He was the consistent wicket-taker that CSK have missed in the past few years and they still managed to mishandle him.
Captaincy
Dhoni’s decision to drop the captaincy before the season was a confusing one. The main explanation was that they were preparing Jadeja for future captaincy but if Dhoni was not going to retire this year, they added an extra burden onto Jadeja that he did not need. He is already one of the most complete all-rounders we have ever seen, so why unnecessarily put extra pressure on him? This had an obvious impact on Jadeja’s performance as he had arguably his worst year ever in the IPL. He had just come back from injury so he had been out of the game for a while but CSK threw him straight into the deep end. On top of all of this, Jadeja spent most of his time on the boundary which meant Dhoni was doing most of the captaincy anyway.
There was one specific moment that stood out to me during Jadeja’s short reign as skipper. Against Punjab, in Match 38, CSK played Santner but misused him. He bowled 2 overs for 8 runs but was never brought back on. Meanwhile, Pretorius went for 50 in 4 overs, and Bravo, 42 in 4. They then sent him in at number 3 and he looked like a deer in headlights.
Fielding
A pretty basic one but CSK dropped 20+ catches this season. It was also one of Dhoni’s worst seasons behind the stumps. He has only had 3 seasons with fewer dismissals but he has also started to miss catches and stumpings that would usually be regulation for him.
