Fleming won't burn the CSK playbook after poor IPL season

Chennai Super Kings (CSK) have had a strange season in IPL 2025. Their success in this tournament - five title wins and 12 playoff appearances - was built around having a core group of experienced players who could navigate the ups and downs of T20 cricket. Even when they were on a winning run, that philosophy was brought into question. Now that they're losing - and have had to turn to their youth to see if their fortunes might turn around - coach Stephen Fleming was asked if there has been a strategy shift. He was emphatic there wasn't.

"No, I don't care how old players are," Fleming said on the eve of CSK's game against Rajasthan Royals in Delhi. "I do like experience though, experience has served us really well over the proud years that we've had. It hasn't worked out quite well for us this year and that could be a bit of form. It can be strategy, it can be a number of things, that just don't quite work out.

"The competition is very even, so the fact that we've been so consistent over a number of years, to have a poor year has sort of shaken everybody, but it's understandable given that, the excellence in which the franchises are operating in."

Fleming could see that CSK were off the pace early this season. The bets they made at the auction table last November did not come off. They brought back R Ashwin. He had been a proven performer for them before and he continued to do well after he left them. They hoped to revive Rahul Tripathi or Deepak Hooda or Vijay Shankar in the same way they did Shivam Dube and Ajinkya Rahane but that didn't work out either. The collective failure of players who have been around the IPL for years caught them off guard. But that hasn't yet pushed them to re-evaluate their whole way of doing things in T20 cricket. Over the last five seasons, CSK have either missed the playoffs, or won the title. It's been a bit of a see-saw.

"The challenge for us is making sure out of this that we do go over everything that we are doing [now] and have done in the past to make sure we are keeping up with the philosophies [of the time], but also identifying talent." Fleming said.

"It's one thing to say we want a team full of young players, but you've got to find them. So it's identifying talent and making sure they fit in. To the experience which I'll say again, I do like [it] and you have a look at the, the top run-scores and wicket-takers and you see there's a fair bit of experience there, but what it's sprinkled with is some amazing performances by young players who are playing sort of fearless cricket."

B Sai Sudharsan, who is yet to play 50 IPL games, has the Orange Cap. Prasidh Krishna, who missed the last two IPLs, has the Purple cap. The past couple of seasons have revealed that lesser-known players have been able to make the step up. Priyansh Arya and Prabhsimran Singh have been a compelling opening combination for Punjab Kings who qualified for the playoffs for the first time in 11 years. Digvesh Rathi, playing his first IPL, has more wickets than Kuldeep Yadav.

Fleming has seen this and believes some of the people they've brought in - like Ayush Mhatre, Noor Ahmad and Dewald Brevis - have a future with them but he isn't ready to burn the CSK playbook yet.

"They have certainly had an impact which is positive from a season that has been a challenge," he said. "But we realised that early on that we were off pace. So to be able to introduce these players, they are definitely in line for the future as we regenerate the team and redevelop or reconfirm our philosophy of how we want to play,

"So it's getting that balance right. But most importantly, it's getting the player and the person right, and that's what we've been looking for."

CSK have two matches left this season. After playing RR on Tuesday, they go to Ahmedabad to face Gujarat Titans on Sunday.