Super Kings 'debacle' show

“They seem a shadow of their former selves. Has fear of losing begun to tie them down”? – Harsha Bhogle.

It was a stodgy performance by Chennai Super Kings this season. Chennai Super Kings under the stewardship of Mahendra Singh Dhoni, who won two IPL titles on the trot, has been struggling with his form this season. But Chennai Super Kings have the reputation of coming back into the tournament as they have done in the past. However, they would have liked to put in a better batting effort this season. Batting collapse – stands out to be the primary reason for the Super Kings’ defeat at the hands of Kings XI, Mumbai Indians as well as against the Pune Warriors.

Chennai Super Kings are the most settled side in IPL with not too many major changes in the team from the first season, except for Jadeja’s inclusion. It is pretty much the same side which won the IPL – 4. They haven’t had good starts with the bat, which have had them on back foot from the beginning. Faf du Plessis and Murali Vijay have been opening the innings for the Super Kings, who have failed to live up to the expectations. This ultimately led to batting collapses as none of the other batsmen were able to offer resistance at the center. Suresh Raina, who is relatively inexperienced in playing the new-ball, was forced to come out to bat within 4 overs, before the ball lost its shine. As a result, his mediocre scores haven’t helped the Super Kings this season. Chennai Super Kings have not exploited the first six overs, right from the start of the tournament. In the game against the Pune Warriors at Chennai, Badrinath opened the innings with Faf du Plessis and failed to live upto the expectations.

After two IPL wins on the trot, and a Champion’s League T20 win under Dhoni’s belt, expectations increased on the Super Kings and they were expected to win this time as well, given that they were playing with mainly the same team. They seem to be overconfident. They lose. They have depth in batting till No.9 with Ashwin being capable of batting as well. I sense, they fear a batting collapse as they had in their opening game against the Mumbai Indians. Since then, they have been defensive and are satisfied with 150 runs. However, they shouldn’t be the case.

Let me illustrate with an example.

In the match against the Pune Warriors in Pune, CSK managed to score only 155 runs with the loss of five wickets. Dhoni was too defensive; he did not take on the attack even to the Warriors’ part-time bowlers; he underrated Pune Warriors’ batting. He did not even consider Ryder and smash-hitter Uthappa, which ultimately led them to defeat. Does Dhoni feel tired or over confident?

Moreover, Dhoni needs to take chunk of the blame onto himself as he has not used his resources efficiently. He seems to believe in some players, rest top-class bowlers to give chances to others who haven’t gotten chances yet. But as we come to the half-way stage of this season, Dhoni should play with the best XI.

My suggestions would be : first of all they should bring back Doug Bollinger at the expense of Tyagi. As far as batting is concerned, they should go with Hussey and Murali Vijay as opening partners as they have excellent communication between them to avoid run-outs. They should not send Bravo and Morkel together which might further have the Super Kings on the back foot, in case both are dismissed at crucial times. They should have Badrinath, Raina at the top to stabilize the innings so that the job would be made easier for Dhoni and Morkel.

With 6 more games to go, we never know! CSK always are slow starters and scramble to get into the last 4. But once into the semifinals, they become a totally new team – a winning champion of a team!