Chennai Super Kings crashed to consecutive defeats in the ongoing Indian Premier League (IPL) 2026 after being outplayed by the Punjab Kings at the MA Chidambaram Stadium on Friday, April 3.
Despite setting a stiff target of 210, the Men in Yellow couldn't build pressure on the Punjab batters. Priyansh Arya set the foundation with a blistering 39 off 11 balls, while the likes of Prabhsimran Singh, Cooper Connolly and Shreyas Iyer contributed with important knocks to orchestrate a memorable win for last year's finalists. Punjab reached the target in 18.4 overs with five wickets to spare.
Irfan Pathan pointed out Rahul Chahar's lacklustre performance in his debut game for the Super Kings. In four overs, the leg-spinner, who came in as the Impact Player, gave away 46 runs without picking up a wicket. Pathan stated that Chahar hasn't improved his game despite being a part of the IPL for a little less than a decade.
“Chennai’s bowling is a really troublesome issue. Do you know what was most disappointing? Rahul Chahar has been playing in this league for so many years, yet no improvement is visible. When you make a comeback, you are supposed to come fully prepared, but it felt like sometimes his length was too short, sometimes too full. There was no drift, no improvement, no new bowling variation, no new tricks from his arsenal, nothing at all. In four overs, you give almost 50 runs and don’t take wickets. That creates problems," Pathan said in a video on his YouTube channel.
I still believe Ruturaj Gaikwad could have led better in this match: Irfan Pathan
Pathan questioned Ruturaj Gaikwad's decision-making as the captain of the side, highlighting that he didn't use spin-bowling all-rounder Prashant Veer with the ball despite the Punjab Kings' opening duo of Prabhsimran Singh and Priyansh Arya not scoring too many runs against the tweakers.
“I still believe Ruturaj Gaikwad could have led better in this match. Against spin, Prabhsimran Singh and Priyansh Arya didn’t score much. They don’t score consistently at a good run rate. You had Prashant Veer as an option. Prashant bowls well in domestic cricket in the powerplay. You could have used him, but you didn’t," the former India all-rounder said.
Pathan urged Gaikwad to talk to the injured MS Dhoni and try to pick his brains, as nobody strategises better than the five-time IPL-winning skipper.
“Since this CSK team lacks experience, the responsibility of the leader increases a lot. Even if MS Dhoni is not playing, it is very important for the Chennai Super Kings captain to take his guidance and experience. Right now, it feels like his imprint is not that visible on this team, in terms of experience or the way they are playing, especially when it comes to strategy, because no one makes better strategies than Dhoni," Pathan mentioned.
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