Former Indian Test opener Aakash Chopra questioned Ruturaj Gaikwad’s comments after Chennai Super Kings were knocked out of the IPL 2026. CSK suffered a huge loss of 89 runs against Gujarat Titans at the Narendra Modi Stadium, Ahmedabad, which ended their campaign.
After the loss, CSK skipper Gaikwad said they lacked experience throughout the campaign. However, Chopra added that Gaikwad should not put the blame on inexperienced players after their elimination.
“He said that’s a very young team, that they cannot show that much faith in youngsters, and that they don’t have enough experience. I am wondering why those who have experience aren’t being spoken about. The talk should have been about Sanju Samson, Rutu, Shivam Dube, and Dewald Brevis. The talk shouldn’t be about Ayush Mhatre, Kartik Sharma, Prashant Veer, or Urvil Patel. What they did was excellent,” Chopra said on his YouTube Channel.
Chopra highlighted that Gaikwad himself had a below-par season while opening the innings with Sanju Samson. The CSK captain scored 337 runs in 14 matches at a below-par strike rate of 123.44.
“The talk should actually be about the elders. Rutu, how was your season? Kids bring bravado and an attacking approach. They don’t bring consistency, and how will they bring consistency? They are kids. So whose responsibility was it? You said you would open and don’t want to let Mhatre open. You needed to score runs. I agree that anyone can have a bad season, but you need to own up. You can’t put it on kids that they didn’t do well,” he added.
Chopra also questioned CSK’s auction tactics after they were knocked out of the tournament.
“In that interview, it seemed like it was the kids’ mistake. It wasn’t the kids’ mistake. The mistake was in the auction as well. You had two overseas batters, and they weren’t even like-for-like. You played with three overseas many times,” he said.
The renowned commentator said that Gaikwad’s comments were odd as the young players have performed decently.
“Plenty of problems that can be talked about later, but I found that one comment odd. Putting your responsibility on someone else is not the nicest way of doing things. You might not have got enough time to think about it post-match, you reacted suddenly, and you don’t mean it perfectly, but it still felt slightly odd as the kids have done decently. It wasn’t about them at all,” Chopra observed.
CSK will aim to bounce back strongly in the next season.
