Poor choices at mega auction root cause for Chennai Super Kings having an awful IPL 2025, Stephen Fleming admits

Chennai Super Kings' long-serving head coach Stephen Fleming admitted that getting the mega auction strategy wrong is among the reasons for the side's poor run in IPL 2025. The five-time champions once again bidded for tried and tested players but the plan has evidently backfired with the team struggling at the bottom of the league table having lost seven out of nine games.

ALSO READ | IPL 2025: Can CSK still qualify for playoffs after SRH defeat?

"It's hard to say. We got it completely right with the performances that we've had. So we have been looking over that in detail, just around our style of play. Also looking at how the game is evolving, and it's not easy," Fleming was quoted as saying by news agency PTI. Players like Rahul Tripathi, Deepak Hooda and Vijay Shankar have failed throughout the tournament and captain Ruturaj Gaikwad's injury didn't help either. CSK's reluctance to try out new talents at the start of the tournament cost them dear.

 

 

"Other teams have got better, and that's the point of the auction. But we just haven't been able to get it right. So you take responsibility from the top down, and you just ask a little bit more of the players. But yeah, that has to be an area where we need to reflect and say it wasn't as good as what it could have been, or it hasn't worked out how we wanted," the former Kiwi international said.

 

"But it's also not a perfect science. The auction is a very fluid beast. It's like buying 25 houses, so you come away at the end of it mentally and sometimes physically exhausted. And to be fair, I still think we've got a good squad. We're not far away," he said, putting up a brave front.

 

ALSO READ | 'Dhoni will do what is right for the team': CSK CEO breaks silence as 'Thala' and co's awful IPL season continues

Fleming also agreed that they probably need to have a closer look at their style of play, after his initial reluctance.

 

They have so far tried as many as 19 players to get the right combination also contributed to their dismal show. Being the team's key strategist, Fleming admitted that the buck stops at him.

 

"A couple of key injuries, just a bit of a lack of form. And we've just struggled really to nail a game plan. Chopped and changed too much, but I think he was trying to look for something that perhaps we felt wasn't there.

ALSO READ | 5 facts: Who is Ayush Mhatre? Youngest CSK player in history blasts Mumbai Indians bowlers on IPL debut

"So yeah, there's a lot of responsibility in soul-searching, and it certainly starts with me at the top, 100% per cent." 

Sports