According to former Indian star Aakash Chopra, the Chennai Super Kings (CSK) are not expected to bounce back from their current miserable state in the 2025 Indian Premier League. He drew attention to the fact that, despite purchasing almost every player they desired during the big auction, the five-time champions have struggled in the current Indian Premier League.
On Friday, April 11, CSK lost to the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) by a crushing eight wickets in Match 25 of the 2025 Indian Premier League in Chennai. After being asked to bat first, the home team only managed 103/9, with 59 deliveries remaining for Ajinkya Rahane and company to reach the goal.
The former India opener was questioned about what went wrong with CSK in the 2025 Indian Premier League in a video posted on his “Aakash Chopra” YouTube channel. Chopra pointed out that the Chennai-based team may have missed out on Deepak Chahar at the auction, and that they were able to keep MS Dhoni for merely ₹4 crore thanks to the reinstated uncapped player rule.
“This team was built after a mega auction. They got whoever they put their finger on in the mega auction. They couldn’t buy just one player, that was Deepak Chahar. Apart from him, they got all the players they wanted. They also wanted Dhoni to be uncapped. So that rule was also made for Dhoni, although it benefitted one or two other teams as well.”
Aakash Chopra
According to the former cricket player who is now a broadcaster, CSK’s lack of batting skill and intent makes it unlikely that they will recover in the 2025 IPL.
“When I see from that point of view, I feel there is no way to escape from here because the batting is looking absolutely insipid. They don’t have the intent at all in batting, and currently it seems like they don’t have the skill either.”
Aakash Chopra
Only Vijay Shankar (29 off 21) and Shivam Dube (31* off 29) scored more than 20 runs in Friday’s match for CSK. The only player to score at a strike rate higher than 110 was Shankar.
“The truth is that this wasn’t a 103-run pitch” – Aakash Chopra on CSK’s dismal batting in IPL 2025 loss to KKR
Aakash Chopra stated in the same video that the Chennai Super Kings’ IPL 2025 total against the Kolkata Knight Riders was much below average.
“The truth is that this wasn’t a 103-run pitch. This was a pitch where a minimum of 145 to 150 runs should have been scored, and if you played well, you could have scored 160 to 165. It wasn’t a 200-run pitch, but they didn’t do anything in batting.”
Aakash Chopra
The team has been let down by CSK’s well-known players, the expert continued.
“You reached only 103 despite catches being dropped. You reached this far because Shivam Dube hit two fours in the end, or else no one is able to bat and I will talk about the big people – Devon Conway, Rachin Ravindra and Ravindra Jadeja after that. Then I will talk about MS Dhoni.”
Aakash Chopra
Chopra said that even if MS Dhoni had won the rather disputed call from the third umpire, CSK wouldn’t have scored significantly higher.
“They even sent (Ravichandran) Ashwin up the order this time. Thala came to bat even below him. That doesn’t work. The question would be whether he was out or not. The truth is that the umpire needs conclusive evidence to overturn the on-field umpire’s decision. Even if he had not been given out, they might have scored 110-120. It was never going to be enough.”
Aakash Chopra
On-field umpire Sunil Narine bowled and MS Dhoni (1 off 4) was declared leg before wicket. Despite a minor rise in the snickometer when the ball was next to the bat, the third umpire did not reverse the ruling.
