IPL 2022 Season Review: Injuries, captain struggles, inconsistencies hurt Chennai Super Kings – Firstcricket News, Firstpost

Over the years, the one thing that has separated the Chennai Super Kings from the rest is their consistency. They had made it to the playoffs/semis in every single season they had played till 2019. They had made it to 9 finals from 12 seasons. Won four trophies. Were the first team to win back to back titles before Mumbai Indians emulated them. They have the most wins in the league, despite having missed a couple of seasons due to suspension. They have the best win percentage in the IPL at 58.41 percent (For teams to have played more than 20 matches in IPL).

Chennai Super Kings disappointed in the 2022 edition of the IPL. Sportzpics for IPL

That consistency is yo-yoing now and that is hurting CSK. The 2020 season was the first time in their history CSK failed to qualify for the playoffs/semis, finishing second from bottom. Then they bounced back strongly to win the trophy next season. But again got knocked out of the group stage in the 2022 edition, finishing second from bottom.

It was a tough 2022 season for the Yellove. Their failure was a due to a collection of factors. The tough times had started even before the start of the tournament. Their 14 crore acquisition in the auction and a vital cog in their bowling line-up, Deepak Chahar was ruled out of the season due to quadricep tear. He was their joint-second highest wicket-taker in the 2021 season.

Two days ahead of the start of the season, MS Dhoni handed over the captaincy to Ravindra Jadeja. Then they lost New Zealand pacer Adam Milne as well due to injury after the opening match which meant they had to alter the team combination. So Devon Conway had to sit out half of the matches. He would then go on to score 252 runs at a ST of 145 and average 42 when he finally got his chance.

Losing rut

And then CSK lost their first match. And then the second. Third. Fourth. They were stuck on the backfoot right from the start. When you get into a losing rut, it doesn’t leave you easily. Their self-belief was shaken. They finally broke the losing rut in the fifth match, against RCB but by then, they were already playing the chasing game. Inconsistency never left them. Loss, win, loss, win, loss, win, loss, followed and they were knocked out of the competition early. They failed to win their last two matches as well and finished with 10 losses and four wins, only manage to stay ahead of bottom placed MI on superior net run rate.

As a team, they seldom clicked in unison. In 2021, they had the best batting average of 32.19 and best strike rate of 139.41. They had two batters who scored over 600 runs — Faf du Plessis and Ruturaj Gaikwad. In 2022 season, not a single batter crossed 400. Their highest run-getter was Gaikwad with 368 runs but that too at a mediocre average of 26.28. He didn’t find form in the early part of the season and that hurt CSK.

The secret to success for CSK in the last season was that Gaikwad and du Plessis laid a solid platform at the top and then Mooen Ali carried forward the momentum with aggressive approach. They played fearless cricket. And somehow that was missing because the opening partnership didn’t click often in the first half. They finished with fourth-worst batting average of 24.60 and the strike rate came down to 131.69, third-worst, after MI (129.23) and RCB (131.37).

The bowling was still good, but CSK needed more. They took the least number of wickets – 82. They had the second-worst bowling average of 27.49 but third best economy rate of 8.45. They performed well in patches. Both the batters and bowlers. The need of the hour was consistency. While Mukesh Choudhary did well to try to fill in the shoes of Chahar, still, somewhere down the line, CSK missed the talismanic presence of Chahar.

With IPL teams undergoing major revamp, Chennai Super Kings were one of the teams that struggled to adapt to the transition. Though they managed to retain much of their core, they couldn’t click as a unit. Fleming admitted that CSK couldn’t finish close games and they suffered from catastrophic success.

“There was a mixed success. We sort of stuttered our way through. We had a number of games that were close, but we were not good enough to get across the line.”

“That’s the normal story of the season we don’t qualify,” Fleming said after CSK’s loss against Rajasthan Royals.

“When you start a new cycle and have a number of new players and a new dynamic in the team it can be testing.”

“We suffered from catastrophic success so just trying to play the same way, continue from our last four years, which were very successful, is a real challenge. Dropping back and understanding what the new players can do, it can take a little bit of time.”

Another big factor of the transition was the change in captaincy. And it didn’t work. R Jadeja couldn’t handle the pressure of leading the side and it had an overall impact on the side and his performance as well.

To add to the batting and bowling inconsistencies, their poor fielding added to the woes as they dropped catches, missed stumpings and run outs which could have been the difference makers.

Hit of the season:

Mukesh Choudhary: The left-arm pacer from Maharashtra stepped up in absence of Chahar and bowled impressively in the powerplay. He finished as the joint-highest wicket-taker for CSK with 16 wickets from 13 innings at 26.50. He was a touch on the expensive side with an economy rate of 9.31. But it was his powerplay bowling that sparkled. He finished as the joint-highest wicket-taker with 11 wickets in the powerplay overs, averaging 24.82 and striking every 17 balls. He swung and seamed them and could form a potent force with Chahar next season.

Miss of the season:

Ravindra Jadeja: He had a tough time balancing everything: Batting, bowling, fielding and captaincy. His batting numbers dropped significantly. His fielding standards dropped. Catches went down, a rare phenomenon. He averaged just 19.33 with the bat. He took just five wickets from 10 matches, averaged 49.60 with the ball and had an economy rate of 7.53. In the last season, he averaged 75.66 with the bat, scoring 227 runs from 12 innings, striking at 145.51. With the ball, he took 13 wickets from 16 matches at 26.61 and an economy rate of 7.06. The captaincy impacted him so much individually that he decided to hand over the captaincy back to Dhoni midway.

CSK had lost six out of their opening eight matches and the damage was already done. The luck kept running out as he suffered a rib injury which brought an end to his tumultuous IPL 2022. It raised a question from certain quarters as to whether Jadeja was the right captaincy choice in first place. With CSK struggling and Jadeja ruled out, rumours of rift between Jadeja and the franchise emerged and CSK CEO had to come up and clarify that the rumours as baseless and “Jadeja firmly remains in the CSK’s scheme of things for the future, always.”

Road to next season: While it was a disappointing season, they can channel the hurt and frustration to catalyse their next season. And may be take inspiration from their last season where they bounced back strongly. A couple of strong additions in the middle order along with some power-hitters could augur well for them.

They have some good upcoming young talent like Matheesha Pathirana, Mukesh Choudhary, Simarjeet Singh who impressed in whatever chances they got this season. Dhoni has backed Choudhary and Pathirana to play bigger role next year while the other youngsters who got a chance, it was a huge learning curve for them. Dhoni is on his last legs, he confirmed that he will be a part of 2023 IPL, but CSK will need to start searching for his successor and groom him. Replacing Dhoni the captain will be their biggest challenge.

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