Chennai Super Kings (CSK) stand-in captain MS Dhoni has already started to think about the next Indian Premier League (IPL 2026) season after CSK's sixth loss in eight games against Mumbai Indians (MI) on April 20 at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai. For the unversed, Dhoni, in the post-match press conference, said the team will be looking at the combinations for the IPL 2026 season if they fail to qualify in the ongoing season after a massive nine-wicket loss to MI yesterday.
Before this El-Classico match against MI, CSK were placed 10th on the points table, and after this thumping loss, things are looking extremely bleak for the five-time champions side to get into the playoffs. CSK will now need to win all six of their matches left and hope few results go their way if they harbor hopes of an unprecedented sixth IPL title.
“We need to see if we are playing the right form of cricket, trying to put the right amount of runs," MS Dhoni said after the defeat, as quoted by ESPNcricinfo. “A few more catches will help, we are trying to plug in the holes. Take one game at a time. Look at the combinations for the next season if we don’t qualify."
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MS Dhoni opens up about what went wrong for CSK against MI
Of all their six losses, this defeat against arch-rivals MI was by far the worst, as they were completely outplayed with bat and ball. CSK's batting has been a huge letdown this season, and yet again against MI, the top order failed to get going.
“We were quite below par," Dhoni said. “Knew dew would come in the second half. Bumrah is one of the best death bowlers in the world, MI started their death bowling early, we should have started our slog early. We should have capitalized and got those runs. [Mhatre] Batted well, he picked his shots well. Wanted to play his shots, we also haven’t seen him much. The oddball was gripping. They played spin well. We never had a par score. If you give away too many in the first six. It wasn’t like it was coming on nicely. We need to realize we are successful because we play good cricket. But we need not get too emotional," he added.
