Chennai Super Kings successfully defended their title by 168 runs at the Himachal Pradesh Cricket Association Stadium in Dharamshala with their bowlers, especially Ravindra Jadeja and Tushar Desh Tushar Deshpande performed brilliantly, restricting home team Punjab Kings to 139 runs in nine games. This 28-game winning streak not only brought them back to the top four in the table, but also gave them a renewed chance to enter the IPL 2024 playoffs. Despite the win, some of MS Dhoni’s actions did not go down well with cricket pundits who slammed the former CSK captain for “not taking responsibility”.
The question that has been troubling experts in the 2024 IPL season is Dhoni’s batting position. Due to his explosive form, in which he has a strike rate of 224.49 and a boundary rate of just 3 balls, Dhoni has been reluctant to bat in the order, contrary to the advice of most senior cricketers who serve as commentators during the match.
Dhoni batted at No. 9 for CSK for the first time in his career against PBKS on Sunday. Mitchell Santner and Shardul Thakur both batted ahead of the former India captain, much to the fury of Irfan Pathan.The former India all-rounder spoke star sportslashing out at the 42-year-old saying that this strategy will not work for CSK in the long run, especially if they make it to the playoffs.
“MS Dhoni batting at No. 9 is of no use to CSK, it does not help the team’s cause. I know he is 42 years old but he is in good form. He should take the responsibility of executing orders. He should Batting for at least 4 to 5 overs. He is batting for the last over or the last two overs, which is not going to do the trick for CSK in the long run,” he said.
“From now on, we may see CSK qualifying for the playoffs and they need to win 90% of their games. As a senior player in good form, he needs to follow orders. He can no longer do what he has done on so many occasions Same thing,” Pathan added.
The former T20 World Cup winner urged someone from the CSK management to speak to Dhoni regarding his batting position and convince him to bat at least four times for the team.
“Yes, he made an impact against Mumbai but here you can’t field Shardul Thakur ahead of yourself when the team needs him. You don’t see Dhoni batting at No. 9 Ball. Sameer Rizvi was also padded in the 15th over. They need to sort out some issues; someone has to tell Dhoni, ‘Come on man, bat 4 overs’,” Pathan said.
Dhoni was dismissed in the 19th over and was dismissed for a rare golden duck, the fifth of his IPL career, as a slower yorker off Harshal Patel He had no clue.
“It would be better to include a fast bowler”
Former India cricketer Harbhajan Singh was also angry that Dhoni had let down the team with his behavior, adding that he would rather be removed from the playing squad if he wanted to continue batting at a lower order.
“If MS Dhoni wants to bat at No. 9, he should not be playing. It would be better to include a faster bowler than him in the starting XI. He is the decision-maker but does not come in to bat and let his The team was disappointed. Shardul Thakur was never able to bat like Dhoni and I don’t understand why Dhoni made this mistake without his permission. It happens and I’m not prepared to accept that the decision to demote him was made by someone else.”