MS Dhoni’s performance in the Indian Premier League has been pretty impressive. The former Chennai Super Kings skipper has smashed 110 runs in nine innings at a whopping strike rate of 224.48.
Dhoni’s role in the ongoing season and even in some of the previous ones has been to bat much lower down the order and play the final balls of CSK’s innings. During CSK’s clash against Punjab Kings at the HPCA Stadium in Dharamsala, the former CSK skipper came out to bat even below Shardul Thakur at No.9. Former Indian cricketer Irfan Pathan was not impressed with CSK and Dhoni’s tactics in the team’s clash against PBKS.
“MS Dhoni batting at No.9 doesn’t work for CSK, it doesn’t help the team’s cause. I know that he is 42, but he is in solid form. He should be taking the responsibility of batting up the order. He should bat for at least 4 to 5 overs. He is batting for the last over or last 2 overs and that doesn’t serve the purpose for CSK for a long term,” Pathan said on Star Sports.
Pathan said that CSK might qualify for the IPL 2024 playoffs but Dhoni is in form and need to bat up the order. “It might happen that we will see CSK qualify for the playoffs from here on and they need to win 90 percent of their games. As a proper senior guy, who’s in form, he needs to bat up the order. He can’t be doing the same thing that he has done on quite a few occasions,” he added.
Batting first, CSK scored 167/9 in their 20 overs on a surface that played slow and low. While Ajinkya Rahane went for another low score of 9. Ruturaj Gaikwad was careful and scored 32 off the 21 balls before falling to Rahul Chahar. Daryl Mitchell looked solid for his 19-ball 30 but the knock from Jadeja was the cornerstone in CSK’s batting. His 43 took the team to 167/9.
Meanwhile, none of the Punjab batters could trouble the Super Kings in the run chase. Prabhsimran Singh was the top-scorer for his 23-ball 30 with Shashan Singh being the second-highest run-scorer for the hosts with his 20-run knock.
PBKS’ Playing XI:
Jonny Bairstow, Rilee Rossouw, Shashank Singh, Sam Curran (c), Jitesh Sharma (wk), Ashutosh Sharma, Harpreet Brar, Harshal Patel, Rahul Chahar, Kagiso Rabada, Arshdeep Singh
CSK’s Playing XI:
Ajinkya Rahane, Ruturaj Gaikwad (c), Daryl Mitchell, Shivam Dube, Moeen Ali, Ravindra Jadeja, MS Dhoni (wk), Mitchell Santner, Shardul Thakur, Richard Gleeson, Tushar Deshpande
