Chennai Super Kings, the five-time IPL champions, have bowed out of the ongoing 2024 season after losing to Royal Challengers Bengaluru in their final league match. After 14 matches in the IPL 2024 season, CSK won seven and lost seven, but their Net Run Rate (NRR) wasn’t good enough to finish inside the top four, leading to their elimination from the playoffs race.
In this article, SportsTiger looks at the three reasons why CSK didn’t qualify through to the IPL 2024 playoffs.
Inconsistent top order except for Ruturaj Gaikwad
The captain of Chennai Super Kings, Ruturaj Gaikwad, scored 583 runs at an average of 53 and a strike-rate of 141.16, but the top order around him was nowhere near as consistent as him. The likes of Ajinkya Rahane, Daryl Mitchell, Rachin Ravindra, and Shivam Dube had a few good innings under their belt, but they were unable to complement the CSK captain in putting big totals on the board for the team consistently.
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Indifferent performances in spin bowling department
Although the fast bowling department for Chennai Super Kings was quite impressive in the IPL 2024 with decent returns from Tushar Desphande, Matheesha Pathirana, and Mustafizur Rahman, the spinners flattered to deceive for a team, who thrived on them to win titles in the past seasons. Ravindra Jadeja, the left-arm finger spinner, was quite disappointing with the ball, picking up only eight wickets in 14 matches, while Moeen Ali, Maheesh Theekshana, and Mitchell Santner played only a handful of matches.
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Injury concerns right throughout IPL season
Apart from lack of top-quality performances from certain players, Chennai Super Kings were also plagued with a few injury concerns right throughout the IPL 2024 season. Matheesha Pathirana, who was a key bowler for CSK in the tournament, played only six matches in the season due to multiple injury concerns, while Mustafizur Rahman was unavailable for nearly half of the matches due to international commitments, and the likes of Deepak Chahar and Ajinkya Rahane had issues with their fitness as well.
