Four-time IPL winners Chennai Super Kings ended a subdued season with 10 defeats, the last being a five-wicket defeat to Rajasthan Royals on Friday. MS Dhoni's men endured one of their worst IPL campaigns, as they went out of the reckoning for a play-offs spot quite early in the season. A shift in leadership midway through the season and the absence of an injured Deepak Chahar remained hot topics of debate, while senior players like Dhoni Ambati Rayudu and Robin Uthappa failed to click with the willow. IPL 2022 Full Coverage
Chennai may have endured one of their worst IPL campaigns, but Dhoni is optimistic about a strong comeback with their youngsters rising up the ranks. The Chennai talisman sees left-arm pacer Mukesh Choudhary and Sri Lankan quick Matheesha Pathirana playing bigger roles for the franchise moving forward.
"Whatever games they have got, they have learned a lot from it. One of the biggest examples is Mukesh. He has played all the games but what is impressive is to see from the first game to the last game how he has improved, how he can bowl at the death," Dhoni said at the presentation ceremony.
"Still what he will do is go back and learn out of the outings he has got. That's what we really want from players. Once they have got that experience, what is important next year once they turn up from IPL is that they don't start from scratch again.
{{/usCountry}}"Still what he will do is go back and learn out of the outings he has got. That's what we really want from players. Once they have got that experience, what is important next year once they turn up from IPL is that they don't start from scratch again.
{{/usCountry}}"That is what is needed from the youngsters and most of them have made the most of whatever chance they have got. Our Malinga (Pathirana), he's really good. It's difficult to pick him and I feel he will definitely contribute next year for us in a big way."
Speaking about the game, Dhoni said the team was a batter short which forced Moeen Ali to "change his momentum". Former Chennai man Ashwin hit a match-defining 23-ball 40 and recorded 1/28, eclipsing an all-round performance by England's Ali, who gave a perfect start to his team with 57-ball 93 and 1/21 in his four-over spell.
"What we need to realize is we're playing a batter light. Once we lost those quick wickets, Moeen had to change his momentum. I feel if one of the batters had batted with him, he could have continued his momentum.
"The role and responsibility got slightly swapped once we lost those wickets and that made it really difficult. So a batter light with the last four, they're not really known for their batting.
"If we went hard and lost another wicket there, we wouldn't have got anything that we would look to defend. I would say (we were) 10-15 (runs short)," Dhoni said.
Before the game, Dhoni also confirmed that he will "definitely" play in the IPL next year as not doing so would be "unfair" not to play in Chennai and say thank you". "Definitely. It's a simple reason.. it will be unfair to not play in Chennai and say thank you. Mumbai is one place, whereas as a team and as an individual, I have got a lot of love and affection. But it wouldn't be nice to the CSK fans," said the 40-year-old.