[This post is submitted by John Felix Arockiadoss, Senior Product Manager, Walmart Global Tech.]
When the Indian Premier League was launched in 2008, few could predict that a team named after a southern empire would become one of the most dominant and consistent forces in franchise cricket. The Chennai Super Kings (CSK) weren’t just a team – they became a symbol of calm leadership, strategic clarity, and cultural continuity. Their early success wasn’t about flashy signings, but about building a system rooted in role clarity, trust, and Dhoni’s stable leadership.
CSK’s journey mirrors that of a well-run organization navigating leadership transition and shifting market dynamics. Making to finals 8 times in the first 10 seasons, a resilient comeback in 2018, their titles in 2021 and 2023 proved the strength of their enduring winning model. But 2025 feels different: Poor performance, stagnation, ignored signals since 2020, and questions about whether legacy had become a liability. Is this a cyclical slump or the start of a deeper decline? This article explores what CSK stood for, what changed in 2025 and what it means for leadership and team-building today’s fast-moving world.
Background
To understand CSK’s philosophy, we must go back to the beginning. The franchise didn’t rely on extravagant auction splurges or flashy social media stunts; it built a culture-first organization. From day one, CSK operated like a well-structured corporate entity than a loose collection of star cricketers. At the center was Dhoni, whose leadership emphasized calmness, clarity, and process over short-term gains. Roles in the team were clearly defined, veterans were trusted, and the dressing room became the cultural heart of the team.
Their dominance wasn’t accidental — it was systemic. CSK bet on experience over hype, stability over churn, and trust over quick fixes. During their peak years (2008-2015), CSK’s team core was filled with seasoned Indian and international players with experience, composure, and a match-winning pedigree. This veteran-heavy strategy underpinned their consistency in the unpredictable world of T20 cricket, standing in contrast to teams that reacted impulsively. CSK’s approach was patient, deliberate, and deeply aligned from within.
Enduring Systems in a Changing Market
But no system was immune to entropy. CSK’s first major disruption came with their 2016–17 suspension. Their title-winning comeback in 2018 affirmed their belief system — proving that culture can outlast crisis.
Yet seeds of vulnerability were already sown. With an aging squad and evolving IPL dynamics, CSK were hesitant to disrupt their once-successful formula. By 2020, warning signs were visible. In the corporate world, resilient organizations didn’t flinch at the first sign of turbulence. They absorb shocks, stay the course, and trust the strength of their operating model. For over a decade, CSK embodied that ethos. Despite a performance dip in 2020 (CSK finished 7th – a rare off year), the franchise did not rush to dismantle its foundation. Instead of reacting out of panic, they doubled down on what they knew best: continuity, role clarity, experience, and trust in their leadership spine. The approach paid off with titles in 2021 and 2023 — not by reinventing their identity, but by extracting peak performance from a familiar system. CSK delivered a masterclass on how a stable, well-understood model can still win big, even in a rapidly changing environment — a principle many organizations admire but few sustain.
The Cost of a Perfect Blueprint
Ruturaj Gaikwad’s appointment as captain in 2024 reinforced CSK’s long-held commitment to cultural continuity. He embodied the franchise’s ethos: calm, role-focused and system-aware – seeing captaincy as a duty to the team, not a position of power. It was evident that CSK was prioritizing internal succession—seeking a leader who embodied the franchise’s cultural DNA, rather than chasing a superstar to redefine it.
The 2025 season was meant to be a new dawn but early humiliating losses and with Ruturaj suddenly sidelined for the season due to injury, CSK stood at an uncomfortable crossroads: their leadership bridge was broken, and their carefully crafted winning model was not producing results. Criticism mounted outside the dressing room — not just for results, but for perceived rigidity in planning from the auction strategy to on-field decisions. CSK’s 2021 and 2023 titles proved that the old model wasn’t broken yet. But in 2025, For the first time, CSK appeared to show concrete concerns on its long-held beliefs. In business terms, they had reached a point where they had maximized every ounce from its winning model, now realizing they must pivot or perish. It was the strategic inflection point for a grand recalibration.
Winning formula under audit
CSK’s current stagnation isn’t the result of a single bad season – it was the product of long-term structural inertia that often afflicts high-performing institutions. Even the most successful frameworks can become self-limiting when they resist adaptation. Their winning philosophy cultivated exceptional cohesion and a strong brand identity, but it also created blind spots – A reluctance to evolve the winning formula or reimagine the leadership structure beyond its existing core.
It was the classic case of a high-performing company becoming resistant to external change. Like firms built around legendary CEOs, over-relying on internal trust, institutional memory, a shallow bench for succession and resistance to outside ideas, at the cost of agility and innovation. When market dynamics shift – as the IPL had, with younger, faster, more aggressive teams – such companies find themselves caught in a lag phase.
Redesign Masterclass – Crisis Management and Systemic Adaptation
CSK’s 2025 response to their early ouster from playoff contention offers a masterclass in crisis management and system-level recalibration. After a historic five-match losing streak, humiliating losses in fortress-like home venues and elimination from playoff contention, the leadership did not treat this as a panic situation – they treated it as a pattern finally too glaring to ignore. One bad season was noise. Two was unlucky. But three out of four years showing decline? That’s a trend. And trends, in any high-performing institution, demand action. It wasn’t a sudden collapse in competence, but a gradual misalignment with a game that was evolving faster than the team’s philosophy. What had once been CSK’s greatest asset—its leadership—became a bottleneck for change. Tactical agility gave way to predictability. The team still looked like CSK on the surface, but its systems no longer kept pace with the demands of the modern game.
The humility to admit that the league had moved ahead of CSK’s methods became the catalyst for a new approach. The message from the top was clear: this isn’t about quick fixes or chasing consolation wins. It was about long-term re-architecture. In effect, the franchise initiated a real-time reset—treating the remainder of 2025 as an opportunity to experiment, recalibrate, and quietly lay the groundwork for its future model.
To address the captaincy crisis, CSK turned once again to M.S. Dhoni—not out of nostalgia, but to stabilize a team in flux. At 43, Dhoni stepping back into the captaincy mid-season never looked a part of the original plan, but it exemplified CSK’s culture of leadership as duty over ego. Importantly, Dhoni’s interim leadership did not undermine Ruturaj’s standing. If anything, it only protected it. There was never a sense that Gaikwad had failed as captain. Dhoni’s comeback was paired with a strategic course correction aimed at the next decade, not just the next match.
Core players were being given extended runs to prove themselves or adapt, instead of being unceremoniously dropped. Mid-season signings in Ayush Mhatre, Dewald Brevis and Urvil Patel were being made not just to fill injury gaps, but to inject fresh energy and test cultural fit for the future. Tactical flexibility was increasing, with experimentation in batting orders and bowling changes that would had been unthinkable in years past. Importantly, these moves were made in close consultation with Ruturaj, whose influence remained present despite his absence.
These measure in the mid of a season signifies that CSK was no longer guarding its legacy, but beginning to rewire it. The failure of 2025 may well become the spark that accelerates CSK 2.0 – not as a break from their identity, but as a reframing of it. In business terms, they weren’t rebranding; they’re restructuring for relevance. The franchise was effectively saying: our core values were non-negotiable, but everything else was on the table for reinvention.
In corporate terms, CSK behaved like a company that had long outperformed the market by sticking to its fundamentals – but had now recognized that shifts in consumer behaviour or technology were not cyclical blips but structural transformations. The decision to act in 2025 wasn’t a rejection of the past; it was an acknowledgment that legacy, while powerful, isn’t permanent unless it evolves. And that recognition, however delayed, might be the most important decision CSK had made in years.
Corporate Thinking, Cricket Execution
What CSK was doing in 2025 mid-season pivot blended corporate thinking with on-field execution. Amid failure, CSK’s approach had become a case study in organizational resilience and system-level course correction. Instead of deflecting blame or chasing short-term wins, they had made a series of world-class organizational moves that focusses on diagnosing the real issues: structural misalignment and outdated methods.
RESET Framework: How CSK Responded to 2025’s Crisis
| Principle | What It Means | CSK in 2025 – Ongoing Actions |
|---|---|---|
| Reassess | Recognize that past strengths may now be weaknesses in a changed environment. | CSK acknowledged the failure early. There was no denial, PR spin, or scapegoating. The poor performance was treated as a structural issue that needed attention, not a fluke. |
| Experiment | Test new ideas, roles, and personnel to explore a refreshed operating model. | Rather than wait for the next auction, CSK initiated change mid-season. New players were signed, roles redefined, and the rebuild process was launched in real time. |
| Stabilize | Maintain cultural stability by leveraging trusted leadership during transitions. | Dhoni’s return wasn’t nostalgic—it was tactical. He stepped in not to reclaim glory but to provide a steady hand and cultural continuity through the turbulence. |
| Evolve | Reshape systems and strategies based on current learnings and future trends. | The team began adapting tactics, moving away from rigidity and embracing modern, flexible strategies while retaining its cultural DNA. |
| Transfer | Gradually shift responsibilities to those who will carry the legacy forward. | Ruturaj Gaikwad’s leadership future was publicly reaffirmed. Despite his injury, CSK protected his role, avoided panic decisions, and maintained long-term succession planning. |
The scoreboard may not immediately reflect the payoff of these moves. But structurally, CSK was doing in tough times what winning organizations did: they stop protecting the past and start building the future – in the present.
Final Reflection
2025 will be remembered not for CSK’s fall, but for how they responded. What followed wasn’t damage control — it was systems thinking in action. They were diagnosing what broke, preserving what matters, and recalibrating what needs to evolve. In sports and in business alike, true resilience isn’t about having a perfect plan; it was about building systems that can absorb shocks, learn from failure, and adapt without losing their core principles.
Their mid-season pivot mirrors iconic business turnarounds:
- LEGO, refocused on simplification, customer connection, and creativity on its core product and rebuilt that— turning its lowest point into the start of a new era after chasing too many unrelated ventures.
- Starbucks reversed brand dilution and sales decline in 2008 by reinstating Howard Schultz, who refocused the brand on customer experience, consistency, and operational discipline—leading to one of the modern era’s most successful brand revival.
- Adobe, slow to respond to the dip in revenue due to decline of boxed software but made a decisive pivot to a cloud-based subscription model- late but well-executed shift unlocked its next growth cycle.
Each of these businesses didn’t avoid failure—they used it as a forcing function for smarter growth. CSK’s 2025 mid-season pivot and its trajectory fits this mold.
So, was CSK poised to succeed in 2026? Could Ayush Mhatre grow into the kind of explosive opener CSK once had in Matthew Hayden or Brendon McCullum? Could Dewald Brevis be CSK’s next Suresh Raina – a sheer match winner? There were more questions than the answers at this point but structurally, culturally, and strategically, CSK was already making the moves that great teams and great companies make when entering their next era.
The path CSK was now charting isn’t just about mounting a one-time comeback; it was about a full-on reengineering. It was not about regaining what was lost but reimagining what can be built anew. True greatness didn’t lie in never falling – it lies in the ability to rise after a fall, to reshape and roar back with intent. CSK’s legacy was built on such resilience, and now we were witnessing it being tested and transformed. If the franchise can pull off this transition, CSK 2.0 won’t just be about one team’s revival – it will stand as a lesson in leadership and adaptive culture for anyone, in cricket or in business, aiming to turn adversity into advantage.