{"id":11355,"date":"2026-05-21T13:12:55","date_gmt":"2026-05-21T13:12:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/1win.za.com\/ipl\/csks-playoff-hopes-on-the-brink-as-ex-player-slams-early-season-blunder"},"modified":"2026-05-21T13:12:55","modified_gmt":"2026-05-21T13:12:55","slug":"csks-playoff-hopes-on-the-brink-as-ex-player-slams-early-season-blunder","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/1win.za.com\/ipl\/csks-playoff-hopes-on-the-brink-as-ex-player-slams-early-season-blunder","title":{"rendered":"CSK\u2019s Playoff Hopes on the Brink as Ex-Player Slams Early-Season Blunder"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Chennai Super Kings find themselves under mounting pressure in the IPL 2026. Sitting on 12 points from 13 league matches, the franchise\u2019s postseason hopes are hanging by a thread\u2014another defeat would effectively end CSK\u2019s playoff contention. While the team\u2019s momentum picked up during the latter part of the tournament, the campaign began badly, leaving them with little margin for error as the points race tightens.<\/p>\n<h2>Key takeaways<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>CSK are on 12 points from 13 matches in IPL 2026 and face elimination from the playoffs race with one more loss.<\/li>\n<li>Former CSK batter Subramaniam Badrinath questioned IPL auction decisions, citing issues in how retentions were handled.<\/li>\n<li>Badrinath highlighted a major retention call involving Ravindra Jadeja at \u20b918 crore and criticised how the decision shifted within a year.<\/li>\n<li>He also questioned retaining Matheesha Pathirana for \u20b912 crore, arguing the fast bowler\u2019s injury record made the risk obvious.<\/li>\n<li>Shivam Dube and Ruturaj Gaikwad were included in Badrinath\u2019s criticism over form and impact.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Badrinath targets CSK\u2019s retention choices<\/h2>\n<p>Speaking in a YouTube conversation, Subramaniam Badrinath\u2014who won the IPL twice with CSK (in 2010 and 2011)\u2014took aim at the way auction and retention strategy has been executed. His central argument was that the logic behind retaining certain players at high values did not match the outcomes that followed.<\/p>\n<p>He specifically referenced what he described as a \u20b930-crore mistake, putting Ravindra Jadeja and Matheesha Pathirana under the spotlight. For Jadeja, Badrinath said CSK committed \u20b918 crore to retain him, implying that such a price should reflect a long-term plan and belief in his availability and role for the full cycle.<\/p>\n<p>Badrinath then pointed to CSK\u2019s subsequent change of direction. He claimed that despite the confidence implied by the retention fee, the franchise traded Jadeja to Sanju Samson through its own decisions in the second year. \u201cIf you retain a player in the mega auction for such a huge amount, it means you\u2019re confident he\u2019ll be there for three years. Yet you changed your mind in the second year itself,\u201d Badrinath said, adding that the process did not appear to be followed properly.<\/p>\n<p>On Pathirana, Badrinath questioned the wisdom of keeping the player for \u20b912 crore. He argued that the franchise should not have been surprised by the likelihood of missing time, stating that Pathirana\u2019s injury-prone reputation was widely known and that it made the retention risk hard to justify. He further claimed that the same situation is now being experienced elsewhere with the player, framing it as a repeat outcome from the original decision.<\/p>\n<h2>Criticism extends to Dube and Gaikwad<\/h2>\n<p>Badrinath also did not spare other CSK names, including Shivam Dube and Ruturaj Gaikwad. On Dube, he suggested the franchise had invested heavily but that the bowling groups across the league had found a way to manage him. In Badrinath\u2019s view, it has become easier for opponents to plan against Dube, which has limited the impact CSK expected.<\/p>\n<p>Regarding Gaikwad, Badrinath said his captaincy had raised concerns across the season. He noted that Gaikwad spent much of the previous campaign sidelined due to injury and argued that this carried into the current season, where his batting returns have been described as poor\u2014adding that it, in turn, has affected his leadership performances on the field.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Chennai Super Kings find themselves under mounting pressure in the IPL 2026. Sitting on 12 points from 13 league matches, the franchise\u2019s postseason hopes are&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":11354,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_yoast_wpseo_title":"IPL 2026: CSK Playoff Hopes on Brink After Blunder","_yoast_wpseo_metadesc":"IPL 2026 update: CSK sit on 12 points from 13, facing must-win pressure as an ex-player questions an early blunder threatening their playoffs.","footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11355","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ipl"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>IPL 2026: CSK Playoff Hopes on Brink After Blunder<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"IPL 2026 update: CSK sit on 12 points from 13, facing must-win pressure as an ex-player 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