Chennai Super Kings have had one of their worst seasons in IPL, but history might be a lot kinder on them once the decisions they implemented this year begin to bear fruit.
A team is always assessed by wins and losses. There is no consolation prize in competitive sport. But you don’t win every time. Just like you don’t lose every time. What matters in top level sport is what you do when the eyes are not on you, or when you are down.
The Super Kings plunged to new depths at the start of the tournament as they got walloped home and away with surprising ease. The five-time IPL champions fell into a death spiral of slow starts in the powerplay followed by desperate batting by an unsettled and misfiring batting line-up.
Still, Chennai remained defiant. Coach Stephen Fleming bravely said something to the effect of “we will see who wins it in the end”. By the end, MS Dhoni returned as captain and many of the players the Super Kings had bought during the auction failed miserably, quietly pushed to the bench.
Chennai are a champion franchise and the winning mentality doesn’t just vanish overnight. But when even hardcore Chennai fans began admonishing the team’s stubborn resistance to modern batting and promising local talent, the team management knew they had a problem on their hands. The great Dhoni also saw his spot in the team being questioned openly and regularly.
Their 2025 campaign was pretty much over midway through the season. The only thing that Chennai could now do is plan for the future. That was difficult because Chennai had played almost their entire squad early in the season, proving once again how poor their auction strategy and talent scouts had been.
Then, in true Chennai style, the struck upon an ingenious plan. They got in reinforcements, with one eye on the next season, through injury replacements.
Dashing young batter Ayush Mhatre, local T20 powerhouse Urvil Patel and South Africa’s promising young batter Dewald Brevis came in as injury replacements just as their season was going down the drain. And all three provided an immediate spark to the team, proving beyond doubt that those who made decisions before and during the player auction were way off the mark.
In their final league match of the season against tournament favourites Gujarat Titans on Sunday, all three injury replacements set the tone for the 2026 season in one of the more complete batting performances this term.
Opener Mhatre (34 from 17 balls), Patel (37 off 19) and Brevis (57 from 23) took Gujarat’s bowling apart, helping Chennai post 230-5 – a total that seemed unimaginable in the earlier part of the tournament for Chennai.
All three batted at a strike rate of around or above 200, while showing acceptable technique. Which makes you wonder what made the team pick left-of-field batters like Vijay Shankar, Rahul Tripathi and Deepak Hooda at the start of the season. Those three were not high on the wish list of any other franchise, while the new injury replacements were on the radar of many.
By the end of the campaign, Brevis (225 runs in six innings) and Mhatre (240 runs in seven games) were easily their most impactful batters.
More than the wisdom of selecting the replacements, what mattered more was the tacit admission from Chennai, who are known to pick and back veteran cricketers almost exclusively, that it was time to embrace younger and untested players who might lack experience but offer greater impact, especially with the bat.
What also changed this season was the famed Chennai template of picking their team for slow turners at home and dominating the games, while cutting their losses away. This time, wickets at all venues turned out to be equally challenging, making an all-round game and quality personnel more critical than venue specific selections.
Chennai’s bowling is still respectable, with wrist spinner Noor Ahmed, seamer Anshul Kamboj, all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja and pacer Matheesha Pathirana holding their own.
With the addition of potent top and middle order batters, we might see the return of the Chennai we know next year. With or without Dhoni in charge.
