Chennai Super Kings: What's behind CSK's worst-ever performance

All great sports teams — be it Michael Jordan’s Chicago Bulls of the 1990s or Leo Messi’s Barcelona in the 2010s — have a sell-by date. After long periods of dominance there comes a time when things begin to fall apart and MS Dhoni’s Chennai Super Kings is no exception. Over the past month, the spectacular unravelling of the most consistent side and three-time champion has left many searching for answers. For the first time in their 11-year history (they were banned for two years), CSK — with only three wins out of 10 — are staring at a non-entry into the last four stage. Over the years, Dhoni sometimes has beaten Houdini himself in conjuring acts and fashioning comebacks, but this time even he seems to have given up. When coach Stephen Fleming after the loss to Rajasthan Royals on Monday said, “the team has run out of juice”, it was evident that everyone in the camp believes a miracle is out of question this year. !function(){"use strict";window.addEventListener("message",(function(a){if(void 0!==a.data["datawrapper-height"])for(var e in a.data["datawrapper-height"]){var t=document.getElementById("datawrapper-chart-"+e)||document.querySelector("iframe[src*='"+e+"']");t&&(t.style.height=a.data["datawrapper-height"][e]+"px")}}))}(); This sense of resignation has probably stemmed from the fact that Dhoni himself is a pale s1hadow of his former self as a player. Physically, he has kept himself fit, but Dhoni has become a liability with the bat in the middle-order. Not for once in the 10 games has he come close to winning a match for the team and young players like Ruturaj Gaikwad and N Jagadeesan have been dropped for much less. medium78789001Add to that his stubbornness in team selection in the name of “process”, whereby he went on playing Kedar Jadhav when the right-hander had nothing to show. “What is process when the process of team selection itself is wrong?” former India captain Krish Srikkanth didn’t mince words during his commentary stint. medium78786692 medium78786887A few in the CSK camp believe they didn’t have much choice after Suresh Raina deserted the ship due to “personal reasons”, but the question that begs to be asked is why the likes of Ruturaj and Jagadeesan are in the team if they are not going to play. While some players from Tamil Nadu Premier League like Natarajan and Varun Chakravarthy are doing well for other franchises, Dhoni and the CSK management have been disinterested in backing home-grown talent and stuck with players like Karn Sharma, Piyush Chawla and Harbhajan Singh (who didn’t turn up despite requests from the management) who are past their prime. “There’s no substitute for experience and you can’t buy game awareness in the market,” a senior CSK official had told TOI in 2018, when they did not go for U19 stars Subhman Gill, Prithvi Shaw, Shivam Mani or Kamlesh Nagarkotti and instead chose Harbhajan, Jadhav, Karn and the likes. Yes, it did pay them dividends for two years, but now as we look to a difficult future, there’s hardly anything in the cupboard. !function(){"use strict";window.addEventListener("message",(function(a){if(void 0!==a.data["datawrapper-height"])for(var e in a.data["datawrapper-height"]){var t=document.getElementById("datawrapper-chart-"+e)||document.querySelector("iframe[src*='"+e+"']");t&&(t.style.height=a.data["datawrapper-height"][e]+"px")}}))}(); Dhoni, though, believes to live in the present. He is the all-powerful boss of CSK and after this disaster the first thing he should do is hang up his playing boots and free a purse of Rs 15 crore to buy a bankable future star. The Jharkhand man is still a brilliant cricket mind and will be better at marshalling troops from the dug-out than out on the pitch. But he needs an ‘active’ player to lead the team in the middle. Overpaid, indisciplined and under performing superstars like Raina (Rs 11 crore), Jadhav (Rs 7.8 crore) and Karn (Rs 5 crore) should be asked to go so that CSK can open up huge funds for the next auctions or trade some meaningful players like K L Rahul, Kane Williamson or Rashid Khan from their respective teams before the auction. !function(){"use strict";window.addEventListener("message",(function(a){if(void 0!==a.data["datawrapper-height"])for(var e in a.data["datawrapper-height"]){var t=document.getElementById("datawrapper-chart-"+e)||document.querySelector("iframe[src*='"+e+"']");t&&(t.style.height=a.data["datawrapper-height"][e]+"px")}}))}(); But that’s easier said than done because for every franchise the enemy no. 1 is CSK. They know how difficult it has been to beat the men in yellow over the past decade and now that the Chennai franchise is in a tight corner, it will be interesting to see if other owners allow them the leeway to become a force again.Once Jordan retired after 1998, Bulls never won the NBA title again, despite their desperate attempts at rebuilding. One can only hope CSK and Dhoni don’t go down the same path in the years to come.boxcontent medium78787769Five reasons for the debacleWobbly start Late start to their training camp in Dubai due to Covid-19 cases in the team and withdrawal of seniors Suresh Raina and Harbhajan Singh meant the team was not quite settled Selection stubbornness CSK’s selection has earned them success in the past, but some of their decisions have lacked rationale this season. Playing an out-of-form Kedar Jadhav over N Jagadeesan is a classic example of their reluctance to try out younger players Dhoni's poor form CSK fans hoped M S Dhoni – fresh from his announcement to retire from international cricket – would be at his freeflowing best with the bat. But the lack of game time has taken a heavy toll on his formPast its best This set of players managed to succeed over the last two seasons, but this time it has proved to be a step too far for the squad in the twilight of their careers Spinners ineffective CSK’s past successes have been due to their spinners, but there has come a cropper this time. Ravindra Jadeja, Piyush Chawla and Karn Sharma have not had the required impact in the UAEUntitled Carousel 78513593