IPL Mini Auction: Why Chennai Super Kings ‘Are in Big Trouble’

For the first time in their history, Chennai Super Kings failed to qualify for the playoffs last season.

Former New Zealand allrounder Scott Styris reckons Chennai Super Kings’ reliance on veterans to get the job done is something which will continue to haunt them at the upcoming IPL 2021. For the first time in their history, CSK failed to qualify for the playoffs last season and were in danger of finishing last before edging ahead of Rajasthan Royals for the seventh spot on the basis of net run-rate.

CSK captain MS Dhoni, himself 39, had spoken about the need for bringing in youngsters into the setup and they seem to have started addressing the issue after releasing six cricketers ahead of the mini auction scheduled to take place some time in February.

Murali Vijay, Kedar Jadhav, Harbhajan Singh, Piyush Chawla, Monu Singh and Shane Watson (retired) have been let go of.

“I think their hands are tied a little bit. In reality, the storyline for the last three years has been about old is gold and ageing side that CSK has but that was always going to come back and bite them really and that reason for that is you still need the younger generation coming through. MS Dhoni mentioned that. He spoke about handing it over to the next generation. Where that comes from, I don’t know,” Styris told Star Sports.

Styris reckons the problem still persists and may continue to plague the former three-time winners despite the space made for inducting new faces. “I think they are in big trouble. The players they released were expected to be the older players in the squad. I think a couple are there but who are the backbones? Where is that spine coming from for CSK? When you look at that top order, they’re not playing a lot of cricket, so I think CSK have a lot of work ahead of them. The auction is a big part of that, not only for this year but next too,” Styris argued.