CSK’s timid loss to KKR: Wake-up call for 5-time IPL champions?

Kolkata: Only twice in their six matches this IPL season have Chennai Super Kings scored 10 runs per over after the first batting Powerplay. CSK were chasing in all five matches before Friday night’s loss to Kolkata Knight Riders, so even those two occasions could be put down to run rate pressure. Defending totals at home though was where they used to excel. But not anymore. In a season where the average Powerplay score has been 57, CSK average 45, plummeting to a new low of 31/2 against KKR.

CSK are not scoring enough. With skipper Ruturaj Gaikwad ruled out for the rest of the season, the problem goes beyond the two Kiwi batters, Devon Conway and the promising Rachin Ravindra. Rahul Tripathi and Vijay Shankar are good strikers but are not outstanding. Shivam Dube has proven to be a middle-overs enforcer, but only when someone is anchoring the innings at the other end. That leaves Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja and MS Dhoni, a lower order that doesn’t excite the senses anymore.

CSK’s batting is stuck in the past, and it is their fault. The auction strategy comes to focus here, especially their not willing to invest in a young, uncapped Indian or a proven overseas batter who can run away with the game. Not that they never had any. After Shane Watson was recruited in 2018, he scored 555 runs, striking at over 154. Faf du Plessis was let go in 2022, and his strike rate for the next three years at RCB hovered around 155. Conway has been a steady accumulator but his strike rate last year (139.71) should have prompted a rethink. Ravindra has potential but is far from a finished product at this level.

For more than a decade the strategy of investing in slightly older Indian batters (like Ambati Rayudu and Ajinkya Rahane) and excellent bowlers yielded CSK many wins. But that approach may have run its course. More puzzling is how in an age when T20 batting is being redefined by franchises toeing the see-ball-hit-ball policy from the get go, CSK are unmoved. A big reason behind this is Dhoni — still considered the brains behind everything at CSK — and the management (starting with Stephen Fleming, coach since 2009) that is known to be averse to change.

There is no innovation or sense of adventure, nothing that suggests CSK want to go beyond their comfort zone. Their overall game is lagging behind as a result, and you can sense that in Dhoni’s analysis as well. “It’s important to get partnerships going, maybe look to capitalise in the middle and later overs. That’s what our strength will be,” the 43-year-old said on Friday, choosing to stay oblivious to the growing trend of teams exploiting the first six overs.

Despite the dominance of batters, T20 remains a game of small margins where teams have to strike a delicate balance between hitting and preserving their batting depth till the last over. While franchises like Sunrisers Hyderabad may be going over the top at the moment, CSK are increasingly getting isolated by their approach of preserving wickets till the end. Not getting all out can’t be all that creditable when there is zero impetus on scoring. And Friday presented an extreme example where CSK went 63 deliveries without scoring a boundary, the third-longest period ever in an IPL innings, before ending on 103/9. There were just eight fours and one six. KKR won by eight wickets with 59 balls remaining, hitting four fours and 10 sixes.

If this isn’t a wakeup call, no lesson would be enough.