Chennai Super Kings have endured their worst start in IPL history, managing just one win from their first five matches. After a promising start with a victory over Mumbai Indians, the five-time champions have suffered four consecutive defeats -- all while chasing totals -- and now find themselves languishing in ninth place.
Their woes have compounded further with a major setback: Batting mainstay and Captain Ruturaj Gaikwad has been ruled out of the rest of IPL 2025 due to injury, delivering a further blow to their already struggling batting line-up.
The batting stats present a grim picture for five-time champions CSK. Only veteran Mahendra Singh Dhoni has a strike rate in excess of 150 who has mainly batted in the end overs to score 103 runs in five games.
Their top run-scorer is Rachin Ravindra, with 145 runs from five matches, but even he has struggled since his match-winning 65 against Mumbai Indians, managing just eight runs in the four games since.
Gaikwad, the only batter to register two fifties in the first five matches, also lacked consistency, registering three single-digit scores.
One of CSK's big batting stars in recent seasons, Devon Conway, suffered a rare humiliation when, despite scoring 69 off 49 balls, the Kiwi was forced to retire out during the chase against Punjab Kings, having failed to find boundaries in the closing stages.
Shivam Dube, the only recognised big-hitter in the CSK line-up, has failed to deliver, with 106 runs at a strike rate of 143, without a single fifty -- dismissed under 20 in the first four knocks before he hit 42 against Punjab Kings.
All-rounder Vijay Shankar struck an unbeaten 69 from 54 balls against Delhi Capitals, but the game had already slipped away from CSK, who were reduced to 74/5 by the 11th over of their chase.
Their two experienced Indian batters in Rahul Tripathi (30 runs from 3 matches) and Deepak Hooda (7 runs from 2 matches) have been a complete failure, exposing the flaw in CSK's auction strategy.
Ravindra Jadeja hasn't been able to make his usual impact with the bat lower down the order. He stroked a match-winning 65 not out against MI followed by 41 against RCB but since then he has struggled.
However, even more concerning has been his ineffective bowling -- just two wickets in five matches at an economy rate of 8.07.
The story is similar for his spin partner Ravichandran Ashwin. Hailed as a marquee return to CSK, Ashwin has claimed only five wickets while conceding nearly 10 runs an over.
Afghanistan's eft-arm spinner Noor Ahmad has been CSK's lone bright spot with the ball, leading the IPL 2025 bowling charts with 11 wickets from five matches. Left-arm pacer Khaleel Ahmed has also been a consistent performer, picking up 10 wickets.
However, Matheesha Pathirana's lack of penetration in the middle and death overs has hurt CSK. The Sri Lankan pacer, who picked up 32 wickets in the last two seasons, has claimed just five wickets in four games at an economy rate in excess of nine.
Sam Curran came with a big reputation, but has fallen by the wayside quite early, while pacers Nathan Ellis and Jamie Overton struggled to contain the flow of runs and have just one game so far.
After suffering their first defeat at home to RCB in 17 years, CSK Coach Stephen Fleming had expressed concern with the pitch at their home ground in Chepauk, saying it has not offered the usual assistance for their spinners.
'It's not the Chepauk (of the past),' Fleming said, 'where you can just go in and play four spinners. We're having to work really hard to try and understand what the nature of each pitch is, and it's quite different,' he added.
The onus now lays solely on 43-year-old Dhoni to somehow drag CSK out of the rut. Dhoni, who led CSK from 2008 to 2024, has been integral in their glorious record with five IPL titles and two Champions League titles.
However, there doesn't seem to be any quick fix in sight unless one or two of the top batters take responsibility. Gaikwad's withdrawal is a major blow with not much quality in the rest of the squad to replace him. They could go back to Tripathi or Hooda or pick one of their Indian youngsters in Andre Siddharth or Shaik Rasheed.
Outside their squad, there are not many options to choose from. They could look at the experienced Kane Williamson, who is currently in India doing commentary for IPL, while among the Indian players they have options in Mayank Agarwal or Prithvi Shaw.
Former India opener Virender Sehwag says CSK's batting stocks have fallen rapidly, pointing out their record of not chasing down 180 or more in the last six years, having last chase down 180 against Sunrisers Hyderabad in Pune in 2018.
'Scoring 40 runs in two overs is a very difficult task, no matter how big a player is batting, it can happen once or twice in 10 matches maybe. I remember Dhoni had smashed 24-25 runs off the bowling of Axar Patel, and before that, he had hit Irfan Pathan for 20-22 runs in Dharamsala,' Sehwag told Cricbuzz after CSK failed to chase down 183 against Rajasthan Royals on March 30, 2025.
'So, you can just remember one or two matches only. It's not that you can say last year he hit these many runs or the year before he did this. For five (six) years, CSK have been unable to chase totals of more than 180. So it is very difficult for a team in this form, to chase so many runs in the last two overs,' he added.
If CSK fails to win Friday's match against the Kolkata Knight Riders in Chennai, it could turn to be a historic new low for them. It could be the first time that CSK have lost three matches in a row at home.
© 2025