Chennai Super Kings captain Ruturaj Gaikwad has shed light on the franchise’s struggles in the last couple of seasons in the IPL. CSK finished IPL 2025 as the cellar-dwellers of the tournament, managing only four wins in 14 games.

In IPL 2025, Ruturaj Gaikwad missed more than half of the season due to an injury and MS Dhoni led in his place. CSK also could not qualify for the playoffs in IPL 2026 as they ended the season in eighth place with six wins and eight losses.

Once again, CSK were troubled with injury woes as the likes of Khaleel Ahmed, Jamie Overton, Ayush Mhatre were ruled out due to their respective injuries.

“The last two years haven’t gone the way everyone expected,” Gaikwad told Sportstar in an interview. “But you have to understand certain dynamics and factors that affect a season. Even in 2025, me being captain and missing more than half the tournament was definitely a setback. Last year too, we had four or five players from our playing XII miss almost half the tournament.”

Gaikwad said even a well-performing team like RCB would have struggled if four of their main players had been injured.

“Even if you look at the successful teams like RCB, if you take away three or four major players, it is definitely going to have an impact. Those are factors a lot of people don’t take into consideration. It is a results-driven tournament, and everyone expects CSK to do well every year because that’s what the franchise has done for 15 or 16 seasons,” he said.

Asked to give a message to CSK fans, Gaikwad said they need to be patient.

“Sometimes things don’t work out the way we want them to. But all the players are working hard to get the team where the fans want to see it. Hopefully, we will get there,” he said.

CSK will look to bounce back strongly in the next season.