After Chennai Super Kings suffered yet another defeat, this time at the hands of Sunrisers Hyderabad, head coach Stephen Fleming candidly addressed the team’s ongoing struggles. The five-wicket loss marked Chennai’s second consecutive defeat and their fourth successive loss at Chepauk, a rare occurrence that had previously happened only once — spanning the last two games of IPL 2018 and the first two of IPL 2010.
Reflecting on the disappointing season, Fleming admitted that strategic errors during the IPL 2025 mega auction played a crucial role. “It is hard to say we got it (auction) completely right with the performances that we have had. So we have been looking over that in detail, just around our style of play. Also, looking at how the game is evolving,” he said after the match. He acknowledged that other teams performed significantly better during the auction, leaving CSK to play catch-up throughout the season.
The team’s inability to find a consistent performer with the bat has been glaring. The situation worsened with the unfortunate, campaign-ending injury to skipper Ruturaj Gaikwad, a blow that further destabilized the squad.
Stephen Fleming emphasized how unpredictable and draining the auction process can be, describing it as a taxing experience. “It is also not perfect science. The auction is a very fluid beast. It’s like buying [for] 25 hours and seeing it come away at the end of it, mentally and sometimes physically exhausted,” he explained.
He further pointed to a mixture of key injuries, poor form, and an unsettled game plan as reasons behind CSK’s lackluster season. “A couple of key injuries, just a bit of a lack of form. And we have just struggled really to nail a game plan. We’ve chopped and changed too much. I think it was trying to look for something that perhaps we felt wasn’t there,” Fleming admitted.
Despite the setbacks, Fleming expressed pride in CSK’s long-standing record of consistency, even as he acknowledged the challenges of maintaining dominance in an ever-evolving competition.
