IPL 2026 starts on March 28 and ten teams are getting ready for what promises to be a big season. Among all the storylines heading into the tournament one stands out more than most and it belongs to CSK.

CSK finished last in IPL 2025. Dead last. Tenth out of ten. Most teams would just put that behind them and move on. CSK are not most teams and their history means finishing last is never just finishing last. There is something else going on here and it goes deeper than even the comeback pattern their fans know so well. It involves a franchise that does not exist anymore and a record that nobody has touched in seventeen years of IPL cricket.

The defunct franchise that went from last to champions and how they did it

The Deccan Chargers in 2008 were supposed to be one of the stronger sides in the inaugural IPL season. They had big names, decent resources and genuine quality across the squad. Nothing worked. VVS Laxman was a legendary cricketer but his conservative approach was completely wrong for the pace of T20 cricket and the team never found its rhythm under him. They relied too heavily on Andrew Symonds who left mid-season and Shahid Afridi who struggled with form and had friction with the management. They did not win a single game at their home ground in Hyderabad all season. They finished last and looked like a team that would take years to rebuild.

Then 2009 happened. Adam Gilchrist took over as captain and changed almost everything. The identity reset was total. The dull beige kit that even the players reportedly disliked was replaced with vibrant blue and a charging bull logo. Gilchrist ignored the big names and backed youngsters. Pragyan Ojha bowled his way through opposition line-ups and a young Rohit Sharma won the Emerging Player of the Tournament award.

The squad that traveled to South Africa for the 2009 edition had limited kits and gear due to sponsor issues but Gilchrist turned that into an us against the world mentality that built a team chemistry nobody had expected. They won the title. The same franchise that had finished last twelve months earlier lifted the trophy and nobody saw it coming.

What went wrong for CSK in 2025 and what they are doing about it in 2026

CSK’s 2025 season had a familiar problem at its core. While teams like SRH and KKR were posting 250 plus totals regularly CSK were still playing the kind of measured anchor cricket that had worked for them in previous years but looked completely out of place in the modern T20 game. Their powerplay run rate was the lowest in the league. Outside of Pathirana the bowling had no venom and they were conceding more than 10 runs per over in the death.

Ruturaj Gaikwad’s early injury forced a 43 year old MS Dhoni back into the captaincy and the Impact Player rule made the game too fast for a static tactical approach. Ashwin took seven wickets in nine games. Jadeja had his quietest IPL season in years. It was a perfect storm of the wrong things happening at the wrong time.

The 2026 reset looks genuinely different. The biggest move was the trade that sent Ravindra Jadeja and Sam Curran to Rajasthan Royals in exchange for Sanju Samson, fresh from winning the T20 World Cup Player of the Tournament award with 89 in the final. Samson adds the explosive intent at the top that CSK have been missing for two seasons. They have also spent big on two uncapped players, Kartik Sharma as Dhoni’s long term successor behind the stumps and Prashant Veer as Jadeja’s replacement, abandoning their traditional preference for experienced names in favor of raw energy and youth.

The plan for Dhoni himself has changed too. Rather than asking him to do everything the 2026 approach is to use him as a pure finisher through the Impact Player rule, letting younger faster players like Ayush Mhatre and Dewald Brevis dominate the first fifteen overs before Dhoni comes in to close games out. Noor Ahmad and Akeal Hosein have been brought in to provide mystery spin in the middle overs at Chepauk where the conditions suit that kind of bowling.

The Deccan Chargers went from last to champions by changing their identity completely, backing youth over experience and building an us against the world mentality that nobody expected. CSK are not copying that blueprint exactly but the broad strokes are similar. A total reset of how they play, new faces in key roles and a captain in Ruturaj Gaikwad who has something to prove after the chaos of 2025. The Chargers did it once and then disappeared. CSK are trying to do it and then keep going. March 28 is when we find out if the reset is real.