Chennai Super Kings head coach Stephen Fleming has said that the four-time champions have suffered from ‘catastrophic success’ this season in the IPL 2022, adding that they have struggled to do well with a new set-up after the mega auction. However, CSK finished their campaign with only 4 wins and missed out on the playoffs berth for the second time in 3 years as well.
Meanwhile, Stephen Fleming also added that CSK missed a couple of in-form players at the beginning of the season who could have got the team going and helped the youngsters too. However, CSK were the second team after Mumbai Indians to be eliminated from the playoffs race as well after finishing their campaign with a 5-wicket defeat to Rajasthan Royals on Friday in Mumbai, despite Moeen Ali smashing a 57-ball 93 and CSK managed just 150 on the board as well.
READ HERE:Â Gary Kirsten all set to work with Hardik Pandya
“When you start a new cycle, when you have a number of new players. It can be testing,” Stephen Fleming told the press after CSK’s last league game. “We suffered from catastrophic success. So just trying to play the same way and continue on for my last four years which were very successful is a real challenge. So dropping back and understanding what new players can do can take a little bit of time.”
However, CSK have seen plenty of success under MS Dhoni’s leadership. Moreover, since their return to the league in 2018, CSK won the title in 2018, reached the final in 2019 and won the title once again in 2020 as well. But, ahead of the season, Ravindra Jadeja was handed over the captaincy but after eight games, he stepped down and Dhoni was reappointed as captain.
READ HERE: India will struggle if Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma don’t score, says Mohammad Hafeez
“What we didn’t have was a couple of form players that got us through those early days. So you get a couple of wins and then you get a little bit of evidence that the team’s on the right track and then the young players get a bit of confidence from the senior players doing well. So that’s the cycle. We had a slow start and we just weren’t able to string enough games together. We had opportunities. There’s no doubt we had opportunities to do better than what we did. But the reality is we weren’t good enough to make the semi-finals this year, and that’s always a catalyst for next year,” Stephen Fleming concluded.
