IPL has more than once been a tournament where the other seven teams compete between themselves to play the final against the Chennai Super Kings.
But then came 2020.
The MS Dhoni-led franchise, which has been in the finals eight out of 13 times since the tournament started in 2008, had a nightmare season this time around in the UAE. Not only did they end up languishing second last on the points table, but they also became the first team to be knocked out of the playoff race even before the league entered its business end.
The unravelling began before even the tournament started.
CSK's 'Mr. Dependable' Suresh Raina backed out due to personal reasons. Another veteran Harbhajan Singh remained absent from the franchise's one-week training camp in Chennai and then followed in Raina's path.
There was more bad news to come. Once the team reached in UAE, 13 members of the contingent, including pacer Deepak Chahar and uncapped Indian batsman Ruturaj Gaekwad got infected with COVID-19. It forced the team to stay in quarantine for a few more days, affecting their preparations.
They started their campaign on a brilliant note by beating arch-rivals and 2019 champions Mumbai Indians by five wickets in the tournament's opening game at Abu Dhabi. After that, it was all downhill as their experienced faces struggled and there was hardly any young, exciting talent to rise up to the occasion.
Silver linings like posting the tournament's highest opening partnership in the match against Kings XI Punjab at Dubai, where the duo of Watson and Du Plessis chased down 180 runs with eleven balls to spare, were few and far between.
Despite the team breaking the spell of humiliating losses towards the end of their group stages and spoiling the play-off dreams of other franchises, a dejected, grumpy-looking skipper Dhoni and a frustrated coach Stephen Fleming looking older than his actual age remained the abiding images of the campaign.
So what were the factors that led to the grand failure?
Spin attack falling apart in Harbhajan Singh's absence
The veteran off-spinner, who has a rich bag of 175 wickets in 188 T20 matches, pulled himself out of IPL 2020 due to personal reasons. It was a shock from which CSK would never recover.
When the franchise re-entered the auctions in 2018, they had snatched Bhajji from arch-rivals Mumbai Indians, acknowledging the off-spinner's role in Rohit Sharma and Co.'s IPL wins in 2013, '15 and '17 seasons. Singh reprised the same role in a different jersey and led CSK to their third IPL trophy.
In 2019 too, he, along with Proteas legend Imran Tahir, led the franchise to its eighth final. While his absence took some shine out of the tournament this year, CSK's spin attack simply couldn't back up the efforts of the new-ball attack of Deepak Chahar, Shardul Thakur and Sam Curran.
Cold tournament for Watson, Bravo
Shane Watson, who has over 5000 runs and over 130 wickets in more than 200 T20s, was the Rajasthan Royals' X-factor when they became IPL's first-ever champions.
CSK picked him in 2018, banking on his power-hitting abilities as an opener and his effective medium pace. He smashed 555 runs in 14 games, including the 57-ball 117*, which resulted in an eight-wicket win for the CSK against Sunrisers Hyderabad, while chasing 180 runs.
In the 2019 edition's final, Watson led CSK's chase again with a 59-ball 80. While Dhoni and co lost the match against Mumbai by just one run, the Aussie earned superhero status for batting with a bleeding knee.
This year, he didn't get any match practice leading up to the tournament due to the global lockdown. This affected his game as his poor footwork and lack of timing became a liability for CSK. A match-winning knock 53-ball knock of 83 in his team's 180-run chase against KXIP at Dubai aside, 'destroyer' Watson was completely missing.
Dwayne Bravo, the 37-year-old ace Caribbean allrounder, had been CSK's other vital cog, shining both with bat and ball. With 212 scalps in more than 200 T20s and over 3000 runs, Bravo's street-smart approach and brilliant fielding skills had always helped his franchises and the West Indies.
While 2013 IPL was a high point for him (32 wickets in 18 innings, the highest ever in a season), he also gifted CSK fans sweet memories with the bat (who can forget the match-winning 30-ball 68 against the Mumbai Indians in the 2018 season opener, coming in at number 7).
This year, he came to the UAE after a successful stint with Caribbean Premier League champions Trinbago Knight Riders. Still, he couldn't offer much to change the fortunes of a depleted, out-of-sorts CSK set-up. While he bowled some tight overs at the death, the clueless management forgot about using his batting skills in the middle order. A hamstring injury ultimately ended his campaign.
Ignoring the TNPL recruits
Tamil Nadu Premier League, which was India's first domestic T20 franchise league during its inception in 2016, has always been a talent hotbed, with the likes of Varun Chakravarthy, Thangarasu Natarajan, Murugan Ashwin and Washington Sundar emerging from there.
In the last auction, CSK secured the services of TNPL's two most successful players, Narayan Jagadeesan (1240 runs) and R Sai Kishore (68 wickets). But while Jagadeesan got to play only four matches, Sai Kishore, the left-arm orthodox spinner, was left to warm the benches.
No new Chinna Thalais
Raina (fondly called 'Chinna Thala' or deputy leader in Tamil by CSK supporters), who has been IPL's most successful Indian batsman (5291 runs in 185 innings), pulled out of the tournament due to personal reasons.
CSK tried Murali Vijay and Ambati Rayudu in his absence. Vijay was given his favourite opening slot, but failed to replicate his 2010-11 success, where he amassed 892 runs in 31 matches. The former India batsman became a walking wicket due to his poor footwork.
Rayudu started the tournament with a match-winning 48-ball 71 against arch-rivals Mumbai Indians, raising hopes of a solution to CSK's middle-order headache. However, he missed the next couple of matches due to an injury and there was little of note after that.
Kedhar Jadhav, the Maharashtra all-rounder, disappointed with his sub-par strike rate. Notably, in the match against KKR, Jadhav came in at number six with 39 runs needed in the last three overs and botched up the chase by scoring only seven runs in 12 deliveries and denying strike to Ravindra Jadeja, whose eight-ball cameo of 21 runs couldn't help avoid a 10-run loss.
Dhoni's game hit by COVID lockdown?
As everyone knows, IPL 2020, which was supposed to take place from March 29, had gotten postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the subsequent lockdown.
The September 19 start post the lockdown did not help CSK whose key players are T20 veterans but retired. Skipper MS Dhoni, who last featured in India's World Cup 2019 semi-final loss against New Zealand, retired from international cricket weeks before the IPL.
Despite having practice sessions for nearly a week at Chennai before the UAE trip, Dhoni the batsman was completely out of sorts. While his highest was the 36-ball 47 in the seven-run loss against Sunrisers Hyderabad, he was no 'finisher' this year. He struggled with his timing against fast bowlers and couldn't dominate the spinners.
This forced the franchise to promote the likes of Jadeja amd Sam Curran to give the team some impetus in the death overs. It was the absence of 'Dhoni, the batsman' that hurt the 'Men In Yellow' this time around.
Should Tahir and Santner have been played earlier?
CSK's hit-making recipe always had a heavy helping of spin in it. This time, they placed their trust in the experience of Jadeja, Karn Sharma and Piyush Chawla in Harbhajan's absence.
Chawla went for plenty; Jadeja and Sharma fell flat too.
The team management made another baffling choice by opting to use the Proteas leg-spinner Imran Tahir and Kiwi off spinner Mitchell Santner to carry drinks, a decision they did not revisit till it was too late.
Santner, often dubbed the next Daniel Vettori, has been known for his ability to choke the opposition batting line-ups by attacking the stumps. His past history of troubling Asian teams could have come in handy for CSK on the slow, low UAE pitches.
Tahir (140 wickets in close to 100 T20 games), on the other hand, was one of skipper Dhoni's trump cards since 2018. His googlies, flippers and extra flight make him an asset for any playing XI. All this made the duo's exclusion all the more perplexing.
When they played in CSK's reverse fixture against RCB at Dubai, the two spinners gave away only 53 runs in eight overs and played their part in securing a win. Need more be said?