Mumbai: “We haven’t won the IPL in five years, obviously we’d like to. But there are teams that haven’t won in forever.”
Mahela Jayawardene isn’t usually the one to throw barbs in press conferences. But an extended dry run coaching an all-star squad brings pressures that only the Sri Lankan would know of.
Before MI’s barren run, they won an extraordinary five titles within a span of eight seasons (2013-20). The only other franchise to have matched MI’s feat is Chennai Super Kings with five titles in 16 attempts. In IPL’s 18-year history these two franchises have surged ahead to create a dynastic record. Surely, in a closed-tournament structure involving a uniform salary purse and no relegation it was too good to last. More teams were going to catch up at some stage.
With the game transcending conventional limits set by traditional formats and emboldened by data science, there are more claimants for the title. We have had four different winners in the last four editions, including two first-time champions.
Feeling the heat are Jayawardene and Stephen Fleming, two of the longest-serving head coaches in league history. The former Sri Lankan captain has been MI head coach since 2017—he moved to a directorial position in 2023-24 – and has overseen three winning campaigns. Fleming has been head coach since 2009—CSK were suspended in 2016-17 – and has literally seen the T20 format transform in front of his eyes.
Gujarat Titans’ win in 2022 was the last ode to CSK strategy. The two teams met again in 2023, when CSK last won. Over the past three years following the introduction of the Impact Player rule, new playing philosophies have gained prominence. Sunrisers Hyderabad, as their tagline ‘Feel the fire’ goes, have turned batting Powerplays into six-hitting fests, once even piling up 125 runs in the first six overs.
RCB, long a constellation of stars without the crown, finally put some selection structures in place under head coach Andy Flower. Taking a page from MI’s playbook, they put a talent scouting network in place and used advanced data to get their auction strategies right. Punjab Kings too have kept pace after overhauling their squad under head coach Ricky Ponting.
With new teams raising the bar, in recent seasons, MI (10th in 2022 and 2024) and CSK (9th in 2022 and 10th in 2025) have been blown away.
“Criticism is fair when you don’t do well,” Fleming recently told reporters. “That’s part of the position. I am coaching throughout the year and two other competitions (SA20 and MLC), and I am doing auctions across a lot of players. So it’s not that I just turn off and then come to the IPL without an idea of where the game is going. In fact, it’s the other way.”
Changing with times
For someone who has been around CSK for a long time – he began as a player under MS Dhoni’s leadership in 2008 — Fleming cannot be faulted for being amenable to change.
After a poor auction and virtually losing the race to the playoffs last year, the pivot came mid-season itself to infuse fresh faces, at least on the batting front. They went all-in with a go-young approach in this year’s auction by breaking the bank for two young uncapped players – Prashant Veer and Karthik Sharma. That’s willingness to change. The proof is in the pudding, though, and based on the action so far, the two youngsters are yet to get enough game time.
There are common threads to the success both Fleming and Jayawardene have had. Neither has needed to influence game-time strategy with two of the game’s most astute captains, Dhoni and Rohit Sharma, leading.
So overbearing has Dhoni’s presence been with the franchise in yellow that Fleming’s influence has never been fully understood. “Every decision, even off-field from how the allowances should be distributed to framing in-house rules to how much media should be allowed were all Dhoni’s,” said one ex-player.
Now, with Dhoni having handed over captaincy and consciously taking a backseat in strategy, the onus is on Fleming to run the ship. It’s a similar story at MI, with Rohit Sharma no longer the captain.
And that’s how the IPL universe has always functioned: under one-man command. If Dhoni and Rohit were more influential as captains, so also was Gautam Gambhir during his days as KKR captain and later in 2024 as mentor.
Jayawardene and Fleming are unlikely to do an Ashish Nehra, hollering instructions from the boundary ropes; but their roles backstage in framing pre-match strategy and playing twelve selections would be closely watched with captains Ruturaj Gaikwad and Hardik Pandya still learning on the job.
“Stephen’s always been there. He’s always got his hand on the rudder. He’s a very shrewd and strategic thinker about the game,” Eric Simons, CSK bowling coach said ahead of the MI-CSK match. “So no matter who the captain was, he was always a guiding light in that perspective.”