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5 Reasons for the Downfall of CSK in IPL 2020 | Why has CSK performed poorly in IPL 2020? | 5 reasons why CSK have played badly in 2020
The biggest T20 league in the world, the IPL, is nearing its business end. There have been some stellar individual as well as team performances so far in this season.
However, one of the most surprising results becoming the talk of the town these days is the rare failure of the most consistent team in the history of the league, the Chennai Super Kings. Although CSK started the campaign in grand style by defeating arch-rivals Mumbai Indians, the rest of the tournament has been miserable for them. They are currently placed at the bottom most position in the points table. In this article, I will throw some light on what has gone wrong for this giant side in this season. Here we go.
1. Withdrawal of Suresh Raina
Fondly known as “Mr. IPL” for his extraordinary performances in the mega event, Suresh Raina withdrew himself from the campaign just before the start of the IPL. If I go by stats, Raina averages almost 38 and strikes at a rate of almost 137 in the three seasons where CSK were crowned as champions. It shows how crucial a player he is for CSK to be successful. Moreover, he used to bat at the most vital position, i.e. the no. 3 spot for them and thus used to bring balance to the lineup to a great extent. In the absence of Raina, CSK have made experiments in their batting lineup to find the perfect balance and have been unable to do that so far.
2. Lack of firepower from Shane Watson & MS Dhoni
If we look at the batting unit of CSK, Shane Watson holds the key for them to have a blistering start. He performed brilliantly for them in the season 2018 by amassing 555 runs at an average of 39.64 with a great SR of 154.60, thus playing the leading role in CSK becoming the champions.
But in this season, he has an overall SR of a modest 125. Moreover, his SR is mere 107 in the powerplay overs so far (109.7 while chasing and 96.15 while batting first) which clearly indicates that he has been unable to provide that explosive start once he used to do. I feel this is one of the main reasons why CSK have failed to score big while batting first or get a fine start while chasing on majority of the occasions. Mind you, they have failed to chase totals of below 170 runs thrice so far in this season.
Also, inspirational MS Dhoni has been unable to find his best touch this season, in the crucial position of finisher for CSK. He has struck at just 125 in IPL 2020, and has occasionally came in too late after sending himself to bat at number seven.
3. Absence of Imran Tahir from the Playing XI
When it was announced that the IPL would be taking place in UAE this season, we all had expected Imran Tahir to be a prime contender for the Purple Cap this season, hadn’t we?
Tahir has picked 32 wickets from 23 games at an average of 19.34 and SR of a mere 15.94 for CSK. This speaks volumes for his wicket-taking ability. Statistically, Tahir took 24 wickets out of his 26 wickets in the middle overs last season and thus he was undoubtedly the best man for CSK in that particular phase.
In the absence of Tahir, all the CSK bowlers have picked 20 wickets in the middle overs combined (13 in 7 lost games and 7 in 3 won games), out of which the wickets picked by their spinners is just 12 from 10 matches. So it shows the lack of wicket taking ability of CSK bowlers in the middle overs, which ultimately has resulted in the batsman of the opposition getting set and wreaking havoc at the death. So I must say CSK not going with Imran Tahir has seriously made their bowling unit defensive.
4. Performance of CSK batsmen during the middle overs, and its consequences at the death
Middle overs, i.e. overs 7-15, consist of a really critical phase in T20 cricket. While the batting teams need to score at a decent pace, they also remain cautious of not losing too many wickets in this period.
The basic plan of CSK has been to chase over the years. But, CSK have lost five games out of seven while chasing this year. If I consider their five unsuccessful chases, the average run rate of CSK batsmen (am not considering extras bowled by bowlers of the opposition) is just 6.62 in the middle overs. In this process, their dot-ball percentage is 32.59 and the number of balls consumed to hit one boundary is nine.
This suggests they have done below average in the middle overs while chasing. As a result, they have faced an extra amount of pressure regarding the required run rate in the death overs and consequently have fallen short of the target.
5. Lack of quality backup options for first-choice players
If you look at the CSK team closely, they have a fixed set of players. But, what if someone from that core gets injured or unavailable? Do they have equally effective backups?
The answer is no.
In the auction prior to the tournament, they bought some extra bowling options including Sam Curran who can bat. But when Raina withdrew himself, they didn’t pick any batsman as a replacement for him despite having limited number of pure batters in the squad. So when Rayudu got injured, they didn’t have a quality option to fill the void. They were bound to go with their non-performing players in some games as they didn’t have great options. In order to be successful in every situation, you must have equally good backups for your first choice players. So, that is one of those several reasons for their abysmal performance this year.
These five reasons are what I think have halted the progress of the Chennai Super Kings in this season. Nevertheless, we all know what CSK are capable of as a team. So, I consider it as a rare bad season for CSK, as their playoff hopes for 2020 hang by a thread. Have a read and share your opinions!
Written by Debashish Sarangi. Follow Debashish on Twitter today.
5 Reasons for the Downfall of CSK in IPL 2020 | Why has CSK performed poorly in IPL 2020? | 5 reasons why CSK have played badly in 2020
