Pretenders of IPL 2025: How CSK, SRH, and RR lost their way this season
The 18th edition of the Indian Premier League has been unlike any other before as midway through, two teams have already been eliminated and Rajasthan Royals are one loss away from joining the list. Here’s a close-up look at what went wrong for the trio, both on the field and at the auction table.
As the Indian Premier League turned adult in 2025, it brought with it a spree of changes like your average hormonal teenager aged 18. The salary cap read an unprecedented 120 crores, as many as six players could be retained including a couple for just four crores each, and the rejigged Right to Match rules seemed to surpass the offside rule in complication for a hot minute. All this culminated in what we are calling the ‘Mega Auction’ phenomenon.
It already happened with Chennai Super Kings in 2022, when a winning team seeking to transition ended up in the doldrums. It is perhaps no co-incidence that the three teams under the scanner today all retained at least five players, with Rajasthan just one of two teams to fill their entire quota of six. As important as a settled core is, fitting the right kind of role players around them can be equally paramount. And when the core does not fire as expected, it only places more added pressure on the fringe still trying to fit in. It is a common thread that has plagued CSK, Sunrisers Hyderabad, and Rajasthan Royals this year – time to explore it in depth.
Yellow Army Blues
If you told a Chennai Super Kings fan ahead of the season that Mahendra Singh Dhoni would be leading the team again, and have both Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja in his ranks, they might have booked tickets to Kolkata straightaway for the final. Instead, they are not even travelling as far as the Chepauk for the first time in forever.
The result must be no surprise though given what the team assembled at the auction in Riyadh. Their squad composition screamed a spin-heavy bowling menace with reliance on traditional batters to get them defendable par scores. That is exactly how it has transpired, minus all the success.
We’ll get to the obvious batting flaws, but it is the bowling that first deserves its due of criticism given the spin trio of Noor Ahmad, Ravindra Jadeja, and Ravinchandran Ashwin is what the team were banking on with a spin-friendly Chepauk at their behest. Turns out, the Chepauk isn’t the same anymore. And while the Afghan has more than delivered with 14 scalps, the other two have combined for just seven with Ashwin dropped from the XI. Consequently, CSK have taken just 23 scalps between overs six and 16 – the second least in IPL 2025. Their economy in this phase has dropped too since last year, largely courtesy of Matheesha Pathirana’s economy soaring from sub-eight in 2024 to well over 10 this season.
But that is not what makes them one of the worst teams to be assembled in competition history. Chennai’s success has almost always been earmarked with a successful opening stand, be it Watson-Rayudu, Vijay-Hussey, and Ruturaj Gaikwad with Faf du Plessis in 2021 or Devon Conway in 2023. Not only did the CSK skipper drop himself down the order, but also failed to find a stable opening partner when he did come up top and now finds himself injured. The lack of form for Rahul Tripathi and Deepak Hooda made matters worse, as did the one-dimensional batting approach of Vijay Shankar. As a result, Chennai have the second lowest average opening stand and have the lowest strike rate in all three phases of the game. One could argue Chennai have traditionally followed this same classical template where they only go berserk at the death, but that hasn’t happened either. They are the only team to strike at under 150 at the death this year, compared to a stonking 180.41 last year. A lack of boundary-clearing prowess lies at the heart of it all. Their best bet Shivam Dube has gone from averaging a six every nine balls in 2024 to one every 14 balls this year, while the other powerhouse Dhoni rarely walks out to bat when runs are still relevant.
Sun sets on the Sunrisers Hyderabad
‘Revolutionary’ – that is how Sunrisers Hyderabad’s 2024 IPL campaign was most commonly described. Their opening duo of Travis Head and Abhishek Sharma, cutely monikered Travishek, broke scoring records for fun to become the best powerplay pair across a season in tournament history. Come 2025, and their strike rate through the first six overs has fallen from an IPL-best 177.43 to 139.51 (only better than CSK).
This is despite the team reinforcing its top-order hitting abilities with the addition of Ishan Kishan, whose century in the season opener helped the team post another record score of 286. Yet, his struggles since has been synonymous with the team’s downfall, for in some ways he does hold the keys to the entire batting order when the openers are struggling. Ishan has been tasked with dictating the tempo to keep Travishek’s aura intact, but also cannot afford to get out early and expose a lineup stacked with power-hitters. Nitish Kumar Reddy’s woeful form has added to the misery, making Heinrich Klaasen their only saving grace – no other SRH batter has averaged over 30 this year.
Yet, as was the case with the Whistle Podu clan, an equally glaring problem lies elsewhere. All said and done, Sunrisers’ numbers with the bat remain half-decent but the same cannot be said for their bowling. The side has the worst economy rate in all three phases of the game. In swapping two defensive bowlers, Bhuvneshwar Kumar and T Natarajan, adept and proven at keeping runs in check on a high-scoring venue such as Hyderabad for Mohammed Shami who blows hot and cold in the IPL, and Harshal Patel who has failed to make much of an impact so far, the team has lost its edge with the ball. The injury to Adam Zampa has further hampered proceedings, meaning the team has the third least wickets in the middle overs, while the absence of Bhuvi-Nattu has seen them scalp just 11 in the last four overs at an economy of 12.36 – worst on both accounts by quite some distance. Unless Travishek or one of the bowlers conjure miracle after miracle with stellar individual showings, things look severely bleak for the Orange Army.
Royally poor Rajasthan
Once is a pattern. Twice is a coincidence. Three times is just out and out criminal… you all know what’s being talked about. The fact that Rajasthan Royals might struggle to finish off games was evident pre-tournament itself, given the surprising retention of Shimron Hetmyer for an astronomical 11 crore and a refusal to reinforce the position. The idea was clear – backing two Indian talents in Shubham Dubey and Dhruv Jurel to take over the mantle.
In fact, it is the same philosophy that runs through their entire batting lineup – a local top-six with Hetmyer as the only foreigner to shore it off. And it has worked out largely well, considering Rajasthan have the best powerplay numbers in the league be it in terms of scoring rates or frequency of dismissals despite only a half-fit Sanju Samson at their disposal. However, a lack of clarity in the team management has impacted performances. Riyan Parag has gone from a 500-run plus season to struggling to understand his role in the team, given the frequent shuffle with Nitish Rana at three or four. Similarly, Rana’s destructive capabilities against spin have remained unutilized – even though the veteran has the 10th best record in the league against slower bowlers, Rajasthan’s middle-overs strike rate is the fourth worst in the league. Similarly, Dubey and Jurel’s incapability to capitalize on strong foundations and get going from the offset has left them with a paltry death strike rate of 157.14, only worse than Chennai and Lucknow.
Yet, like their two fellow pretenders, it is the bowling where they have been hit the hardest. The Royals pair of Avesh Khan and Trent Boult helped RR register the most powerplay wickets in 2024 – they now stand at the bottom of that list in 2025, with a wicket coming only every five overs with the new ball. Similarly, replacing Yuzvendra Chahal’s talents with that of Wanindu Hasaranga has backfired spectacularly as no team has taken fewer than their 21 scalps in the middle overs, with the strike rate rising by an incredulous five points. And to cap it all off, Sandeep Sharma has been far from his best, his economy skyrocketing from 8.18 to over 10 and directly translating in Rajasthan’s death economy reading 11.92 – only SRH have fared worse.
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