Chennai Super Kings

In September 2007, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) announced the establishment of the Indian Premier League (IPL), a Twenty20 competition with the inaugural season planned for 2008. Chennai was one of the eight city-based franchises unveiled for the inaugural edition in January 2008.

The player auction for the inaugural IPL season took place in January 2008. Then captain of the Indian team MS Dhoni was bought by the Super Kings for $1.5 million, the most expensive buy at the auction. The franchise also bought international cricketers Suresh Raina, Matthew Hayden, Jacob Oram, Stephen Fleming, Muttiah Muralitharan and Michael Hussey in the inaugural auction. Ahead of the inaugural season, the franchise named Dhoni as the captain of the team and appointed Kepler Wessels as the head coach. The team played its first game in the IPL on 19 April 2008 against Kings XI Punjab at Mohali, which it won by 33 runs. The Super Kings finished the league stage in third place with eight wins from 14 games. In the semifinal, the franchise beat Kings XI Punjab by nine wickets to reach the maiden IPL final. In the final at Mumbai, Rajasthan Royals won the match off the last ball to defeat the Super Kings and lifted the first IPL title. By finishing as the runners-up in the IPL, the Super Kings qualified for the inaugural season of the Champions League Twenty20 (CLT20). The tournament was later cancelled as a consequence of the 2008 Mumbai attacks and the Super Kings was given $5 million as compensation from the BCCI for the same.

Ahead of the 2009 season, Stephen Fleming took over as the head coach of the Super Kings. At the player auction, the franchise bought English all-rounder Andrew Flintoff for $1.55 million, making him the joint highest-paid cricketer in the IPL. Opening batter Hussey skipped the IPL season to focus on The Ashes. The Super Kings finished the league stage in second place with eight wins from 14 matches. In the semi-finals, the team lost to Royal Challengers Bangalore by six wickets. Super Kings opener Hayden won the Orange Cap as the leading run-scorer of the season with 572 runs.

In 2010, the Super Kings struggled in the first half of the regular season, winning only two matches out of seven. They won five of their next seven games including a must-win encounter against Kings XI Punjab at Dharamshala. With seven wins from 14 matches, the team finished the league stage in third place and qualified for the semi-finals for the third consecutive season. In the semifinal, the Super Kings scored a modest 142/7 in 20 overs against the defending champions Deccan Chargers but restricted the opposition to 104 runs to score a 38-run victory. The Super Kings defeated Mumbai Indians by 22 runs in the final to secure their first ever IPL title. With the win, the franchise qualified for the 2010 Champions League Twenty20 that was to be held in South Africa. In the Champions League, the team finished at the top of Group A with three wins and a defeat. In the semifinal at Durban, the Super Kings defeated fellow IPL team Royal Challengers Bangalore by 52 runs. In their first CLT20 final at Johannesburg, they beat the Warriors of South Africa by eight wickets to win the tournament. Murali Vijay, who won the Man of the Match in the final, was awarded the Golden Bat for scoring the most runs in the tournament, and Ravichandran Ashwin, who was the leading wicket-taker, was adjudged the Player of the Series.

For the 2011 IPL season, a fresh auction was held after two new teams were added to the IPL. Each franchise was allowed to retain a maximum of four players from its current squad with a maximum of three Indian players. The Super Kings retained captain Dhoni, Raina, Vijay and South African Albie Morkel. In the subsequent auction, they bought back Hussey, Ashwin, Bollinger and Subramaniam Badrinath. In the 2011 season, they finished second in the league stage with nine wins and five loses. The team won the first qualifier against Royal Challengers by six wickets to qualify for the final. In the final, the Super Kings again met Royal Challengers in Chennai. The team won a second consecutive IPL title and Vijay was named as Man of the Match for his innings of 95 runs. In the Champions League held later that year, the Super Kings won only one out of their four group matches and finished at the bottom of the table.

Ahead of the 2012 IPL season, the franchise bought Indian all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja for $2 million at the players' auction. The Super Kings won only five of their first 12 games but won three of their last four matches to qualify for the playoffs. In the playoffs, the team beat Mumbai Indians by 38 runs and league stage table-toppers Delhi Daredevils by 86 runs in consecutive matches to qualify for the final. In their third consecutive final appearance, the Super Kings lost to Kolkata Knight Riders by five wickets. In the subsequent Champions League, the Super Kings ended with two wins from four matches and did not progress past the group stage.

Ahead of the 2013 IPL season, the Super Kings strengthened their bowling by signing up five new bowlers. In the IPL season, the team finished on top of the group stage points table for the first time with 11 wins from 16 matches. During the season, they also equaled the record for most successive match wins in the IPL with seven wins. In the first qualifier against the Mumbai Indians at Delhi, the Super Kings won by 48 runs, aided by unbeaten half-centuries from Hussey and Raina, to qualify for the final. In the final against the same opposition at Kolkata, the team lost by 23 runs. Hussey top scored with 733 runs, winning the Orange Cap for the most runs in the season and Dwayne Bravo won the Purple Cap for the most wickets (32). The Super Kings qualified for the 2013 Champions League Twenty20 held in India in September–October. The team won three of the four matches in the group stage to qualify for the semi-finals, in which it lost to the Rajasthan Royals by 14 runs.

In May 2013, Gurunath Meiyappan, who was the team principal of the Super Kings, was arrested by Mumbai Police on charges of placing bets on IPL matches. In February 2014, a three-member panel appointed by the Supreme Court of India inquired into the betting case and indicted Meiyappan for illegal betting during the 2013 IPL season.

Before the 2014 season, the Super Kings retained Dhoni, Raina, Jadeja, Ashwin and Bravo ahead of the players' auction. At the auction, the franchise bought Brendon McCullum, Dwayne Smith, Faf du Plessis, Ashish Nehra and Mohit Sharma among others. The first phase of the IPL season was held in the UAE with the second phase returning to India, but the Super Kings' home matches were shifted from Chennai to Ranchi due to a dispute between the Government of Tamil Nadu and the Tamil Nadu Cricket Association. The Super Kings started the season with eight wins in their first ten matches before suffering from a dip in form towards the end of the regular season. The team recovered to finish third in the points table to qualify for the playoffs. In the first match of the playoffs, the team beat the Mumbai Indians by seven wickets before losing to the Kings XI Punjab side in the next match. In the 2014 Champions League, the Super Kings won two matches to finish second in the group stage to qualify for the semifinal. The team beat the Kings XI Punjab in the semi-finals by 65 runs. At the final in Bangalore, the Super Kings defeated then IPL champions Kolkata Knight Riders by eight wickets to win their second CLT20 title. Raina finished as the highest run-scorer of the tournament and was awarded Man of the Series.

Ahead of the 2015 season, the Super Kings got Hussey back and also bought Kyle Abbott, Irfan Pathan and Andrew Tye among others in the players' auction. In the group stage, the team topped the table with nine wins from 14 matches. In the playoffs, the Super Kings lost to the Mumbai Indians by 25 runs in the first qualifier before defeating the Royal Challengers Bangalore in the next match to qualify for the final. In the final, the team was again beaten by the Mumbai Indians by 41 runs. On 14 July 2015, the Supreme Court appointed committee headed by RM Lodha, suspended the Rajasthan Royals and the Chennai Super Kings franchises from the IPL for a period of two years due to the association of their owners with illegal betting.

Ahead of the player auction in 2018, the Super Kings retained Dhoni, Raina and Jadeja from its old team roster. In the auction, the franchise bought back Bravo, du Plessis, and Vijay. It also added international cricketers Imran Tahir, Lungi Ngidi, Mark Wood, Mitchell Santner, Sam Billings along with Indians Deepak Chahar and Shardul Thakur amongst others. Ahead of the team's return to the IPL after two seasons, anticipating fans turned up for the practice sessions held at the M. A. Chidambaram stadium in Chennai before the start of the tournament. The Super Kings started off with a one wicket win over the Mumbai Indians in their first match in over two years. The team finished the league stage in second place to qualify for the playoffs. The Super Kings beat the Sunrisers Hyderabad in the first qualifier to qualify for the final. The team beat the same opponent in the final to win the league for the third time. The Super Kings also became the first team to defeat a single opponent (Sunrisers Hyderabad) four times in a single season.

In the 2019 IPL season, the Super Kings finished second in the league stage with nine wins from 14 matches. In the playoffs, they lost to the Mumbai Indians in the first match before beating the Delhi Capitals in the next match to enter the final for a record eighth time. In the final, the Super Kings lost to the Mumbai Indians by one run. Tahir, who took 26 wickets, won the Purple Cap for the most wickets.

Before the 2020 season, the Super Kings bought Sam Curran, Josh Hazlewood and Piyush Chawla at the player auction. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the IPL was initially postponed and later shifted to the UAE. Many members of the Super Kings' team tested positive for the coronavirus, and players such as Raina and Harbhajan Singh pulled out of the tournament citing personal reasons. In the first match, the Super Kings beat the defending champions Mumbai Indians. The team finished seventh overall in the group stage points table and failed to make it to the playoffs for the first time. The team's captain Dhoni drew criticism from the supporters over his form and team selection. The franchise released many of the players including Chawla, Vijay and Kedar Jadhav before the player auction for the 2021 season.

In the 2021 player auction, the Super Kings bought Cheteshwar Pujara, Krishnappa Gowtham and Moeen Ali and traded in Robin Uthappa from the Rajasthan Royals. In the 2021 season, the team won five of the first seven matches before the season was suspended midway due to increase in number of COVID-19 cases. The second leg of the season resumed in the UAE with the Super Kings finishing second in the group stage to qualify for the playoffs. In the playoffs, the team beat the Delhi Capitals to reach the finals for the ninth time in their history. In the finals, the Super Kings beat the Kolkata Knight Riders to win their fourth IPL title.

Before the start of the 2022 IPL season, the Super Kings announced that Jadeja will replace Dhoni as the captain of the team. After the team lost six of the first eight matches in the season, Jadeja handed the captaincy back to Dhoni on 30 March 2022. The Super Kings finished ninth out of the ten teams in the group stage and failed to qualify for the playoffs for only the second time in their IPL history.

In the player auction before the start of the 2023 IPL season, the Super Kings bought Ben Stokes, Kyle Jamieson and Ajinkya Rahane. Bravo retired and re-signed with the team as the bowling coach, replacing Lakshmipathy Balaji. During the early part of the season, Chahar and Jamieson were ruled out due to injuries, and Stokes was out for most of the season due to various injuries. The team finished second in the group stage with 17 points from eight wins. The Super Kings won the first qualifier against the Gujarat Titans, making it into their tenth IPL finals in 14 seasons. In the final in Ahmedabad, the Super Kings beat defending champions Gujarat Titans by five wickets to win a record equaling fifth title.

In the player auction before the 2024 season, the Super Kings bought back Thakur and added Daryl Mitchell, Sameer Rizvi, Mustafizur Rahman and Rachin Ravindra to the squad. On 21 March 2024, Dhoni handed over the captaincy of the team to Ruturaj Gaikwad. The Super Kings finished with 14 points from seven wins in the group stage. The team was tied with three other teams in the competition for the last play-off spot (fourth) but finished fifth behind the Royal Challengers Bangalore on net run rate after the loss to the same team in its final group match. Hence, they failed to qualify for the IPL playoffs for only the third time in their history.