Brevis becomes a crucial component of CSK’s future strategies

Chennai Super Kings’ IPL 2025 campaign continued to deteriorate as they lost Tuesday for the tenth time, which is tied for the most in an IPL tournament. Their first-ever wooden-spoon finish is all but guaranteed. If they achieve 200 batting first, they would need to defeat the Gujarat Titans, who are at the top of the table, by 107 runs in their most recent league match in order to avoid that. The five-time champs, however, would not be aiming for that. Trying to “find the answers for the next year” is the larger picture, according to MS Dhoni.

This season, CSK’s problems began at the top of the batting order and have persisted throughout the match. With 23.67 runs/wicket at 8.5 runs per over, they have easily been the weakest batting team in the powerplay, compared to the tournament total of 38.55 and 9.51, respectively. Shivam Dube’s lackluster campaign hasn’t helped in the following phases, and even though Ravindra Jadeja has scored runs, batting against spin still need a significant improvement.

Two young guns, Ayush Mhatre and Dewald Brevis, who joined Urvil Patel as late replacements, have shown promise in the middle of all the turmoil and appear to be filling in the gaps. In the powerplay, Mhatre and Urvil have combined for eight sixes in 88 balls, while 12 other CSK batsmen have seven in 384. Regarding middle-overs, Brevis has been the leader and may be living up to the potential that was displayed when he first appeared on the scene as “Baby AB.”

He hit a brilliant 42 against SRH in his debut IPL 2025 match, and CSK managed 40/6 in seven overs following his dismissal to be swept out for 154. His middle-overs assault against KKR, which included a 30-run over against Vaibhav Arora, helped CSK end their four-match losing streak. He was Sam Curran’s backup against PBKS. Following his removal, CSK scored just 50 runs in 6.2 overs against RR, far below par on a flat surface helped by short boundaries.

This season, Brevis has been hitting at a remarkable 170.10 in middle overs. For comparison, throughout this period, he and Mhatre have combined for 174.41 runs, while the other 12 CSK batters have reached 117.07. Before being sidelined due to injury, Ruturaj Gaikwad hit at 175 (63 off 36) against spin, while Brevis has so far reached 150 (81 off 54). At a strike-rate of 113.06, the 12 other CSK batters who have faced at least 10 balls against spin have averaged 19.25.

Brevis has made significant strides in 2025 across all formats. Upon returning home, he amassed 398 runs at 66.33 (SR: 156.07) in the Provincial One Day Challenge and 573 runs at 47.75 with two hundreds in the CSA Four-Day First-Class event. In the Twenty20 format, he scored 291 runs at 48.50 (SR: 184.17) to help MI Cape Town win the SA20 championship.

Although it would have been ideal for CSK to have needed this boost earlier in the competition to be in the hunt, there have been very few examples of replacements in the IPL causing a significant turnaround, such as when they found Doug Bollinger in 2010 and Chris Gayle in 2011. They might still look to the recent past for inspiration, though. They had Gaikwad, a deserving replacement for Shane Watson who will partner Faf du Plessis in 2021, shining late in their miserable 2020 season. Matheesha Pathirana was the star of their fifth title victory in 2023, following Dwayne Bravo’s last participation in 2022.

However, Mhatre, Noor Ahmad, Khaleel’s exploits, and Brevis’ rise may allude to the necessity of striking a healthy balance between the abundance of experience and the youthful energy. They were dubbed the “Dad’s Army” and won the title when they returned in 2018. The average age of their starting lineup in the final was 31 years, 5 days. Five of the six IPL final lineups with average ages of 30 and up have played for CSK; they recorded an all-time high of 34 years and 66 days in 2019 and went on to win two more titles in 2021 and 2023.

An intriguing picture is painted by the difference in performance between their youthful guns and the more experienced ones this time. For the record, CSK has fielded 12 players over the age of 28 and 10 players under the age of 27.

The battle on Tuesday was no exception. Brisk 40s from Mhatre and Brevis set the stage, but CSK could only muster 17 in the final three overs, with a misfield resulting in the only boundary. Nine singles and seven dots were scored during Dhoni’s 17-ball stint at the crease. In the 14th over of the chase, 14-year-old Vaibhav Suryavanshi was removed by the competition’s oldest spinner, Ravichandran Ashwin, but RR needed just 19 balls to eliminate the final 50 runs.