CSK and SRH: What mistake they both did in IPL 2025?

CSK and SRH: What mistake they both did in IPL 2025? (Source: SRH & CSK)

CSK and SRH have had a poor campaign in the ongoing . The former champions find themselves in the last two positions in the points table after 8 matches, and find themselves in a must-win situation for the rest of the tournament. Their highly negative net run rate will not help them in any way, either.

CSK, who won the title in 2023, and SRH, who were the finalists in the previous season, had a good start to their campaign in the IPL 2025. While SRH registered the second-highest total in IPL's history, CSK beat arch-rivals, Mumbai Indians, in a convincing way. Since then, both the teams have lost 6 of their 7 matches without giving enough fight to their opponents.

Mistakes made by CSK and SRH in IPL 2025 1. Poor form of key batters

Both SRH and CSK's key batters have struggled to score runs consistently at a good batting strike rate. While Pat Cummins' men haven't been able to make the most of the batting-friendly conditions at home, the Chennai batters have lacked intent more often than not. The poor form of batters is the main reason behind their current positions on the .

Batter	Team	Innings	Runs	Average	Strike Rate
Shivam Dube	CSK	8	230	38.33	133.72
Vijay Shankar	CSK	5	118	39.33	129.67
MS Dhoni	CSK	8	134	33.50	152.27
Ravindra Jadeja	CSK	8	145	29.00	126.08
Rachin Ravindra	CSK	8	191	27.28	128.18
Ruturaj Gaikwad	CSK	5	122	24.40	150.61
Rahul Tripathi	CSK	5	55	11.00	96.49
Heinrich Klaasen	SRH	8	281	40.14	159.65
Travis Head	SRH	8	242	30.25	163.51
Abhishek Sharma	SRH	8	240	30.00	183.20
NK Reddy	SRH	7	133	19.00	109.91
Aniket Verma	SRH	7	171	28.50	172.72
Pat Cummins	SRH	7	65	16.25	154.76
Ishan Kishan	SRH	8	139	23.16	163.52

In the Super Kings set-up, among the batters to have played five or more innings, all batters barring MS Dhoni and Ruturaj Gaikwad have a strike rate of less than 135, which is concerning in modern-day format. None of their batters averages over 40, which sums up their batting in the season. Names like Rahul Tripathi and Deepak Hooda have failed badly, which can be linked as the key reason for their downfall in the ongoing season.

In SRH, among the batters to have played five or more innings, no batter averages more than 31, except for Heinrich Klaasen, which speaks volumes about their inconsistency. Batters like Abhishek Sharma and Ishan Kishan had one big knock and haven't done much apart from it. Nitish Kumar Reddy and Abhinav Manohar's poor batting has cost SRH big time, and so is the case with the experienced Travis Head as well.

Questionable retention choices 

Both the sides' retentions were highly questionable due to the auction dynamics. SRH retained Heinrich Klaasen at a whopping INR 23 crores, the most during retention, and the Proteas cricketer has not justified his heavy price tag yet. While captain Pat Cummins was retained for INR 18 crores, openers Abhishek Sharma and Travis Head were retained for INR 14 crores, respectively. A huge chunk of their purse went to these 4 players, which did not allow them to splurge during the two days of the mega auction.

On the other hand, CSK were smart in retaining MS Dhoni at INR 4 crores as an uncapped player. Captain Ruturaj Gaikwad and Ravindra Jadeja were retained for INR 18 crores respectively, while Shivam Dube and Matheesha Pathirana cost them INR 12 and 13 crores respectively. Among these, Klaasen, Gaikwad, and Jadeja cost them more than they probably would've gotten at the auctions.

Mediocre bowling attack

While CSK has a mediocre bowling attack in the ongoing season, the Hyderabad-based franchise has arguably the worst bowling attack for a team in the IPL 2025. For the five-time champions, Noor Ahmad and Khaleel Ahmed have been great, while for Hyderabad, only Harshal Patel has been impressive enough.

Bowler	Team	Innings	Wickets	Average	Strike Rate	Economy
Noor Ahmad	CSK	8	12	17.25	13.50	7.66
Khaleel Ahmed	CSK	8	11	24.27	15.80	9.20
Matheesha Pathirana	CSK	6	7	32.28	18.50	10.43
Ravindra Jadeja	CSK	8	5	33.20	23.00	8.66
Ravichandran Ashwin	CSK	7	5	44.60	28.80	9.29
Harshal Patel	SRH	7	9	24.00	15.30	9.39
Pat Cummins	SRH	8	7	40.42	23.70	10.22
Zeeshan Ansari	SRH	6	5	42.40	26.20	9.70
Mohammed Shami	SRH	7	5	52.20	28.80	10.87
Simarjeet Singh	SRH	4	2	70.50	30.00	14.10

Among the bowlers with at least 4 innings in the season, CSK's Noor and Khaleel have been good with good bowling averages and strike rates. While Jadeja has been mediocre, Pathirana has failed to claim wickets in the middle overs. The biggest disappointment for them has been Ravichandran Ashwin, who hasn't picked a lot of wickets and gone for runs.

SRH, as a bowling unit, has failed collectively. Apart from , other bowlers have an economy of over 9.50, a bowling average of more than 40, and a bowling strike rate of over 23.00. The failures of key bowlers like Mohammed Shami and others like Simarjeet Singh have proven costly for the 2016 champions.