“Can’t just be missing one player and lose three in a row”: Irfan Pathan expects CSK to step up after losing 3 IPL 2022 matches

Irfan Pathan expects CSK: The former Indian all-rounder wants the defending champions to perform much better in IPL 2022.

Chennai Super Kings have suffered their third consecutive loss to find themselves at the ninth position of Indian Premier League 2022 points table. In what is the first-ever instance of them losing their first three league matches, Super Kings have been far away from playing like defending champions.

A triad of losses against different oppositions at two venues is a ramification of CSK losing while both setting and chasing a total. Having failed to defend 131 and 210 in their first two matches, Chennai fell well short of chasing a 181-run target against Punjab Kings at the Brabourne Stadium tonight.

Notwithstanding a collective poor performance by the team thus far, voices have already started to erupt in order to question a change in captaincy from Mahendra Singh Dhoni to Ravindra Jadeja a handful of days before the start of the ongoing 15th season of the IPL.

Irfan Pathan expects CSK to step up after losing three IPL 2022 matches

Part of a star-studded 85-member commentary panel, former India all-rounder Irfan Pathan took to social media platform Twitter to highlight the absence of pacer Deepak Chahar at Super Kings this season. Acknowledging the same, Pathan didn’t seem to take the absence of one player as an excuse for losing three consecutive matches.

Recovering from a quadricep tear, Chahar is uncertain of joining CSK before the last week of April. Not part of their four retained players ahead of IPL 2022 mega auction in Bengaluru earlier this year, Chahar had become CSK’s costliest-ever buy in an auction only to be unavailable for almost the first half of the season.

A five-day break will provide time for Chennai to introspect before their fourth IPL 2022 match against Sunrisers Hyderabad in Navi Mumbai on Saturday.