Fall Of The Legacy Teams In IPL 2026: What Ails KKR, CSK, And MI?

The air smelled thick, the atmosphere heavier. It was 37 degrees and 73% humidity outside Chepauk on the 18th of May. It was the last day of the home team's appearance in Chennai this season. All 18 gates had opened just past 4pm. As the crowd started trickling in, Chinamma sat outside gate no. 2 selling gajras of Madurai malli (jasmine) and yellow whistles. No, that wasn't a campaign for a political party, but she said "whistle podu" in hope that the sound of the whistle wakes up a comatose Chennai Super Kings team. The season was done-6 wins from 13 games.

Their 14th one was scheduled on the night of 18th May with Sunrisers Hyderabad, which they lost too and ended 8th in the 2026 IPL.

Vinay Perumal stood in the queue to buy a gajra for his girlfriend. He had bought two Rs 1700 tickets when the ticketing window had opened earlier in the season, hoping Shailaja, who he was getting engaged to on the 19th of May, would get a chance to see her idol MS Dhoni play that game. Vinay and Shailaja are tied by the Super Kings. Their romance began in the stands of Chepauk. They started coming to the stadium in 2022, just after COVID, and were witness to Thala's magic in 2023-the Luke Skywalker of Chennai cricket (once Indian cricket too).

"He exists in our memories now," says Shailaja. And like many, the couple had waited to have a glimpse of Dhoni's helicopter. They did have a glimpse of Dhoni, not his helicopter though, when he came out to click a group photograph with the team that evening. Shailaja and Vinay came with the hope that Dhoni would gift them a knock to remember. That did not happen.

"We want to see Chennai rise again. Next year we shall return-whether or not Dhoni plays," says Vinay. Perhaps that is music to the ears of the Chennai Super Kings franchise owners, who have held onto Dhoni for far too long, thinking there are no replacements. That fans will desert them once MSD is gone.

Of course there will be no two Dhonis, but an athlete's shelf life is limited. MS Dhoni's injury and the hope of his return till the last game robbed Chennai of an injury replacement. That was perhaps one of the biggest setbacks.

Chennai is a team in transition. That happens when teams are still figuring themselves out. Players don't fully understand each other's roles yet, so inconsistency creeps in.

At some point, they need clarity. Either it's a team with Dhoni or a team without Dhoni. In 2026, they looked somewhere in between. Kolkata Knight Riders' former Director of Cricket, Joy Bhattacharjya, best described the situation as "Dhoni is like Schrodinger's Dhoni-he's there, but he's not there." That's not good for the team.

Chennai had always found ways to transition smoothly. Earlier, Dhoni as captain would reshuffle the cards, and new players would seamlessly fill old roles. Murali Vijay and Raina did it, then Dwayne Smith, McCullum, Ambati Rayudu, Gaikwad, and Conway; year after year CSK found its feet. Suddenly, they don't quite know what to do. Shivam Dube, an India player, too, shrugged off the responsibility of guiding the team.

What has added to their woes is the enormous Dhoni legacy hanging over them. Is he playing? Is he not playing? Over the last two seasons, it's almost become a distraction.

Captain Ruturaj Gaikwad has to take a long, hard look at how he adapts his game. He's talented enough and smart enough to do it and has a template in Virat Kohli. However, if the CSK openers are not going hard from both ends, it becomes very difficult to win consistently in today's IPL. And having him at the top has not helped.

The captaincy conundrum will plague Chennai as much as it will plague Kolkata Knight Riders.

Kolkata once again finished the season in 7th place. Ajinkya Rahane has been a fabulous captain in the later half of the season-they went on to win 6/7 after accumulating 1 point in the first part of the season. However, his strike rate of 135 would make franchises and perhaps him think if he fits into the playing XI of the KKR team at all! If not, then there is a case for KKR to look at a new captain next year.

Soumyajit Lahiri, who has stayed loyal to the franchise as a fan over 19 seasons, does a deeper reflection: "When Gautam Gambhir was there, and even when he came back as mentor, KKR had a very clear brand of cricket-explosive starts, strangling spin bowling, and sharp fielding. That identity made a difference.

They've lost part of that now. What also happens when you stop winning consistently is that you lose that aura. Teams are no longer scared of you.

Earlier, teams would feel the pressure of playing KKR, Chennai, or Mumbai at their home grounds. That fear factor has gone. I don't think that's bad for T20 cricket overall, but these franchises haven't moved forward the way people expected them to."

"Did he feel that this was a season for the return of the Fake IPL Player? Not quite. KKR has lost its aura. The initial few years of IPL saw KKR being branded as the Bollywood team. Every time it got onto the field, we the fans thought that it would deliver a Chak-De script. But that was unrealistic, right? In that air of anticipation, the Fake IPL Player thrived. Today it won't. Plus, the Badshah himself is no longer as present. 2009 was a very different year, very different energies."

And what about Mumbai Indians? They were paper tigers in 2026, looking like a side of 2020. In the end they were strong on paper, listless on the field. Three years on, the Rohit-Hardik captaincy decision is still hurting them. This has always been Rohit's team, and dislodging him has hurt Mumbai badly.

The Paltan also had bowling problems this year. Deepak Chahar and Trent Boult didn't strike early, Bumrah lacked support, and their spin attack didn't scare teams. Without wickets upfront, their ability to defend totals disappeared.

Suryakumar Yadav can't be expected to belt out a 700-plus season every time. But in IPL, there is no place to hide either.

Their strategy of putting Shardul Thakur and Deepak Chahar in the same playing XI looked misaligned for a greater part. Mumbai Indians, known for churning out talent year after year, looked short in that department too. But they still have strong pieces like Ryan Rickelton, Will Jacks, and Corbin Bosch to build around.

With a year still left for the mega auction, all three legacy teams have to press the reset button if they want to rise above the mid-table. Perhaps the immediate diagnosis for all three would be - change your captain.