Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) heavily damaged Chennai Super Kings' (CSK) IPL 2026 playoff chances on Monday (May 18), defeating them by five wickets at Chepauk.
To keep their slim playoff hopes alive, CSK must win their remaining league match against Gujarat Titans (GT) in Ahmedabad on May 21 and rely on other favorable results.
Speaking during the post-match press conference, CSK head coach Stephen Fleming minced no words as he admitted that Ruturaj Gaikwad’s performances fell short of expectations this season and the captain needs to address his shortcomings.
Gaikwad played a turtle-paced knock of 21-ball 15 against SRH, which took his tally to 321 runs in 13 innings at an average of 29.18 and a strike rate of 120.67, including two half-centuries.
"I'll start with the powerplay. The key one is wickets, really. Yeah, I think Ruturaj can do more. He's done more in the past. He's been a fine player at the top. He hasn't produced the quantity of runs at the pace of runs (this season) that he's done in his career. And that's something that he will address," Fleming told reporters.
"But in conjunction with Urvil Patel, who's come in, who's pretty free-spirited, so there is a combination aspect to it. But that is something that we'll ponder over. I thought today got difficult in terms of the pace of the pitch," he added.
Fleming felt a total of 180 was a highly competitive score on a slow pitch where the ball was "gripping and stopping." He credited the Sunrisers for how well they batted to chase down the target.
"So, getting through to a score of 180 was more than competitive. The spin bowling aspect, I don't know. I haven't spent a lot of time evaluating that one. It wasn't a lot of turn. It was slow today. There wasn't a huge amount of turn.
"But the use of Akeal Hosein, and we've got Veer there as well, and Noor. Yeah, those are things that we will go over, and we do review them when we're looking at it. Today, probably if you look at their attack, it was their seam bowlers that bowled cutters into the wicket hard that did the damage. So, our attack was a little bit different to that," he stated.
Fleming addressed a query on Gaikwad’s future as CSK captain, saying that the latter is learning daily and commands full respect of the squad.
The coach further emphasized that Gaikwad is navigating a difficult transition phase following the legacy of MS Dhoni and it will naturally take time for him to fully settle.
"Yeah, there's been a lot of change. So, this year, at least, he was here the whole time (due to an injury). Last year, he wasn't here at all. So, that would be unfair to judge that. But, yeah, there's been a lot of work done behind the scenes as we learn about this group of players. Obviously, the way through, we've made some mistakes. Always put our hand up for that. But we've also done some good things.
"There's been some players who have come through. We've, sort of, the second half, we've won a number of games and we've been in the fight with this. We just haven't been accurate enough," Fleming said.
"It's a big transition from having one of the best captains that cricket's seen running the franchise for such a long time to a new captain. So, it's going to take a little bit of time. And, look, he's doing a good job. He has a massive amount of respect with this group of players. And he's learning all the time and putting that into play. So, going forward, I have no doubt he'll be a fine captain for this franchise," he remarked.
