Chennai Super Kings knocked out of playoffs for the first time ever
Chennai Super Kings (CSK) has appeared in the Indian Premier League for 11 seasons including the current one and has qualified for the playoffs on 10 previous occasions. They have also played the final eight times and have won the IPL trophy thrice-2010,2011 and 2018.
However, the IPL 2020 season started off on the wrong foot for the MS Dhoni-led franchise and it has only gotten worse for them.
It started with two of the veteran players Suresh Raina and Harbhajan Singh pulling out of the tournament owing to personal reasons. 13 CSK members including Deepak Chahar and Ruturaj Gaikwad tested positive for COVID-19 extending their 6-day quarantine to 14 days.
Though CSK started off well, defeating Mumbai Indians in the first match of the tournament, they went on a losing spree so bad that they found themselves at the bottom of the points table for the first time ever.
IPL 2020: MS Dhoni wants his players to enjoy their game after CSK's early elimination
MS Dhoni-led team lost straight to Rajasthan Royals, Delhi Capitals, Sunrisers Hyderabad, before beating Kings XI Punjab to break the streak. But then they managed just one more win in their next five matches and were knocked out of the playoffs race after Rajasthan Royals defeated Mumbai Indians on October 25.
The CSK team couldn’t manage to find the right combination with their batting and the age-related fitness issues of their players finally came to the fore as Dwayne Bravo was ruled out due to injury and other players on the wrong side of 30 proved to be liabilities on the field for MS Dhoni.
Many decisions made by team management, like Dhoni batting lower down the order, benching Imran Tahir and a few more begged answers. Dhoni’s own form and the overall low morale of the team proved to be too much for them as the yellow army will not be playing in the playoffs for the first time ever in the IPL.
