Chennai Super Kings Report Card for IPL 2022: Messy season for former champions

Chennai Super Kings is one of the most successful IPL teams in the history of the league. The four-time champions had won the title last season and many expected them to make it to the top four at least even this time around. However, nothing of that sort happened and the team started their IPL campaign in a disastrous manner this season under Ravindra Jadeja’s captaincy.

CSK scored 589 runs in 504 during the powerplay in IPL 2022. They have scored 2,165 runs from 1,644 balls. The team has a batting average of 24.60 and they are sixth on the standings when it comes to average. 

CSK batted first 10 times scoring 1,579 runs in 1,176 balls. The team scored 184 boundaries and 103 sixes during the tournament. They are only better than Mumbai Indians, Sunrisers Hyderabad and Kolkata Knight Riders when it comes to boundaries and sixes and the rest of the team have done better than them. These numbers are proof that Chennai Super Kings have not done well with the bat which is a major reason because of which they were unable to qualify for the playoffs. 

Powerplay - C

Ruturaj Gaikwad is the only batter who opened in all 14 games for CSK and during the powerplay, he scored 186 runs from 164 balls. Robin Uthappa opened in 9 games and scored 134 runs after facing 11 balls in the powerplay. Devon Conway too opened for CSK and scored 85 runs from 76 balls while batting in the powerplay. Moeen Ali batted in the powerplay and he faced 67 balls and scored 111 runs during the powerplay and was the best batter for CSK in the powerplay. 

None of the CSK batters make it to the top ten list of batters who have done well in the powerplay. This highlights and further proves the fact the franchise has not done well at the top of the order for the majority of IPL 2022. 

The MS Dhoni-led Chennai Super Kings have been mediocre at best in the final stages of the innings. The death overs is the passage of the game where teams need to go big and make sure they can get as many runs as possible. CSK are at the fifth spot which is right in the middle of the ten-team tournament when it comes to batting in the final phase of the innings. The men in yellow have scored 768 runs from 468 balls which is slightly better than what they have done in the powerplay. Yet, not enough when compared to the other teams.

These numbers suggest that the performance of the lower-order batters during the final phase of the innings has been slightly better than the powerplay overs but still not enough when compared to the teams who managed to reach the playoffs. 

Chennai Super Kings had to suffer a massive setback even before the start of the tournament as they were without the services of their most expensive buy from the mega-auction i.e. Deepak Chahar who was ruled out of the IPL due to an injury. This led to them having to rely on a crop of young fast bowlers who were relatively inexperienced when it came to playing in the IPL. 

CSK picked 82 wickets during the tournament which is the least when compared to all the other teams in IPL 2022. This was a glaring problem for the team as they could not get wickets when they needed to which led them to have the poorest bowling strike rate throughout the season at 19.52. Their inability to take wickets proved to be a major reason for their poor outing throughout the season. 

Powerplay - B

Talking about the powerplay overs, CSK managed to pick 21 wickets in the powerplay which is the sixth-best when it comes to comparing with all the other teams in the cash-rich league this season. Deepak Chahar’s absence did hurt them as he was the one who gave his side early in the innings. But, this performance is decent keeping in mind that the bowlers that they had were inexperienced yet did well in the powerplay. 

Death Overs - C

Chennai Super Kings have been the worst when it comes to death bowling in IPL 2022. Death bowling has been their biggest problem in IPL 2022 which has allowed other teams to post huge totals against them.

Dwayne Bravo has been an exception in the CSK bowling line-up as he is the second-best bowler in IPL 2022 in the death overs with 11 wickets from 9 matches with an economy rate of 9,49. However, none of the other CSK bowlers make it to the top ten of this list which shows why they have struggled so much. Yuzvendra Chahal is at the top of this list with 14 wickets from 15 games with an economy rate of 8.71. 

Captaincy - C

The main issue this season for the Chennai Super Kings was the captaincy in my opinion. MS Dhoni handed the captaincy to Ravindra Jadeja and it was announced just two days prior to the first match of IPL 2022 that the all-rounder will be leading the franchise as they look towards the future. The defending champions would not have imagined what would happen next as Ravindra Jadeja was just not looking comfortable in the role which resulted in the side losing 6 games out of the 8 that he captained. 

The all-rounder was not able to deliver as a player also as the burden of captaincy was visible in his performances. He had scored only 112 runs and taken 5 wickets in the eight games that he was captain. Following his disastrous run as skipper, Ravindra Jadeja decided to step down from captaincy mid-season and hand it back to former skipper MS Dhoni. This raised quite a few eyebrows as CSK is a franchise that has been known for backing its players till the very end. 

But this move surprised many and changing a captain mid-season is never a great idea keeping in mind the atmosphere of the team even if it is MS Dhoni. What followed was CSK playing under MS Dhoni’s captaincy in the last 6 games of the league stage and could only manage to win two games out of them.