Chop, change and no consistency: How CSK's batting failures caught up with them in IPL 2024

The moment MS Dhoni’s attempted swipe touched the moon and nestled into Swapnil Singh’s palms, Chennai Super Kings (CSK) hearts sank. Their playoff charge came to a grinding halt, and the thought of defending their title, moved away from reality to fiction.

For many of their fans, that was the moment when their elimination was confirmed. Not just because of what was required, but also because the confidence a Dhoni dismissal drains is unlike any other, especially in a high-pressure run-chase.

Their season, though, was not won or lost on that particular sequence. Yes, Dhoni being dismissed hurt their chances of getting 11 off five balls and sneaking into the top four on NRR, but it was arguably the lack of cohesive batting that let them down. Against the Royal Challengers Bengaluru. And throughout the season.

Much was made about the bowling injuries CSK suffered during the course of the campaign. Deepak Chahar and Matheesha Pathirana were not available for the back end, whereas Mustafizur Rahman had to fly back for international duty. Despite that, their bowlers did a decent, if not world-class job.

The batters, however, just could not come to the party often enough. While there were individual performances that made CSK fans drool, the continuity and the consistency so often associated with the five-time champions, was missing.

Captain Ruturaj Gaikwad ended up as their leading run-scorer and at times, it felt that they were too dependent on their skipper. That is emphasised by the three times they had to chase more than 200. In each of those games – against the Delhi Capitals, the Gujarat Titans and RCB – Gaikwad fell cheaply and CSK’s chase spiralled.

CSK had issues with their opening partnership throughout

The other major problem they had was Gaikwad’s opening partner. They rummaged between Ajinkya Rahane and Rachin Ravindra, with the CSK skipper even demoting himself to No. 3 on the odd occasion. None of it worked. In fact, the home game against the Punjab Kings was the only time this season they had gone through the powerplay without losing a wicket.

This directly affected their run-rate, which in a season of especially high-scoring powerplays, pulled the team back. The five-time champions scored at 8.72 in the first six overs – only the seventh-best among the ten teams.

Last year, they rattled along at 9.35 – the second-best tally, which is a direct correlation of having a stable partnership at the top of the order, and having two batters in good nick.

The slower scoring in the powerplay and the wickets lost had an impact on the middle overs too. CSK had the worst run-rate in this phase of all sides (8.45) – another downgrade from 2023, where they scored at 8.63 runs per over.

Shivam Dube falling off a cliff post his selection in India’s T20 World Cup squad likely played a massive part. Ambati Rayudu’s absence also proved pivotal, given none of Moeen Ali, Ravindra Jadeja or youngster Sameer Rizvi could consistently hit spin.

At the death, CSK were better than last year, scoring at 12 runs per over as compared to 11.52. That, though, was largely down to Dhoni fully finding his range as a death-overs marauder. The former captain scored at a strike rate of more than 200, and hit 31.7% of the sixes CSK managed in that phase, despite only facing 22.69% of the balls.

Apart from the numbers, it was how the five-time champions jumbled their role clarity that also stuck out. Quite often last season, they paired batters in such a way that one of them could take down spin and the other could attack pace.

On several instances in 2024, they found themselves in situations where both batters could not attack pace (or spin), thus allowing the opposition to bowl the variety they were not comfortable with.

The constant chopping and changing, which CSK usually refrain from, did not help either. On certain days, Daryl Mitchell was walking in at No.5. On other occasions, he was batting at No.3. The same could be said about Jadeja, who during the middle of the season, seemed CSK’s fail-safe middle order option, only to then find himself batting towards the end later in the campaign.

Rahane, who endured a wretched run, also seemed restrained, almost like he was asked to bat more like an anchor this season, which, again, is completely different to 2023 and what made him such a vital presence.

All of these, in the end, came back to haunt the five-time champions. And while the temptation may be to say that that Dhoni dismissal was the death knell, CSK had probably lost the game and relinquished their title defence much earlier.

If anything, their death-overs batting – specifically Dhoni and Jadeja – kept them afloat in a campaign that had otherwise sunk. In the end, it was, of course, not enough. But given the problems they had throughout, it would have been a real surprise had it been.