IPL 2022: 3 reasons for Chennai Super Kings' miserable start to the season

Four-time Indian Premier League (IPL) winners Chennai Super Kings (CSK) have had a rather poor start to the IPL 2022 edition, having lost their first four matches.

Under a new captain Ravindra Jadeja, CSK have experienced the worst start to a season in their history. It is still early days in the tournament, but fans did not expect such a lackluster performance from the most consistent franchise in the IPL.

Let's look at the three biggest reasons why the Chennai Super Kings have been struggling to get going this season.

---

#1 Ruturaj Gaikwad's form

One of the major reasons for Chennai Super Kings' triumph last season was the incredible success of the opening pair of Faf du Plessis and Ruturaj Gaikwad. Both openers scored over 600 runs.

With no Faf in the mix this year, the onus was on Ruturaj to continue his prolific form. He was, after all, the Orange Cap holder last season.

So far this season, Gaikwad has been completely out of sorts, scoring just 18 runs in four matches. Ruturaj's failure has meant that the team has failed to get a good start in all their matches up to this point. His partner Devon Conway also failed in the first game when he was given a chance.

---

#2 Ordinary performance from domestic seamers

Chennai Super Kings had huge hopes from their main pacer, Deepak Chahar, who was bought for a whopping ₹14 crore in the IPL auction. But his injury right before the season's start was a massive blow to the team management.

Tushar Deshpande and Mukesh Choudhary have looked ordinary so far. With no pace to trouble the opposition, they have never looked threatening during any phase of the game.

Choudhary, in fact, looked quite decent in his first spell of all the matches but the less we speak about his death bowling, the better.

---

#3 Ravindra Jadeja's captaincy and form

Ravindra Jadeja took over the captaincy of Chennai Super Kings just before the season started, after MS Dhoni decided to step down. However, Jadeja has looked mediocre as a captain, often getting the bowling changes wrong.

The lack of good domestic bowlers has definitely not helped his case. But you don't expect him to make mistakes like bowling a part-timer in Shivam Dube in the death overs.

He has had an ordinary outing with the ball as well, picking up just one wicket in four matches. With the bat, he has looked a shadow of his destructive self so far. Chennai Super Kings will be looking at Jadeja to return to his usual best in their upcoming matches.