Gautam Gambhir, the former Indian batsman and two-time IPL winner for KKR has slammed Chennai Super Kings (CSK) skipper, MS Dhoni, for coming to bat lower down the order at number seven when his side was chasing a mammoth 217 against Rajasthan Royals.
His remarks came after CSK’s defeat against Rajasthan Royals by 16 runs in the Indian Premier League (IPL). MS Dhoni came out to bat in the 14th over of the innings with CSK reeling at 114/5. The side still needed 103 runs for the win at that time and many experts hoped and predicted that MS Dhoni should have come in earlier.
Sam Curran, Ravindra Jadeja, Ruturaj Gaikwad had come in front of MS Dhoni once again to bat against Rajasthan Royals.
Gautam Gambhir Surprised To See MS Dhoni Batting At No. 7
Gautam Gambhir was a bit surprised to see Sam Curran, Ravindra Jadeja and Rituraj Gaikwad ahead of MS Dhoni who being the captain should have led from the front but batted at no. 7 which made no sense according to Gautam Gambhir.
MS Dhoni found going a little tough initially as he was able to score just nine runs off his first twelve balls, but in the final over as CSK needed 38 to win, MS Dhoni was able to smash 20 runs, including three sixes.
“I was a bit surprised, to be honest. MS Dhoni batting at No. 7? And sending Gaikwad before him, Sam Curran before him. Makes no sense to me. In fact, you should be leading from the front. And this is not what you call leading from the front. Faf was probably the lone warrior,” ESPNCricinfo quoted Gambhir as saying.
“Yes, you can talk about MS Dhoni’s last over when he hit three sixes, but it was of no use, to be honest. It was just all personal runs. See, if someone else would have done this, some other captain had batted number seven, he would have got a lot of flak,” he added.
For CSK, openers Murali Vijay scored run a ball 21 and Shane Watson scored 33. Sam Curran scored 17 while Rituraj Gaikwad was out for a golden duck. Kedar Jadhav scored 22 but CSK failed to win despite valiant contributions from Faf Du Plessis.
MS Dhoni Had No Intent To Win The Game: Gautam Gambhir
MS Dhoni batted lower down the order in their first opening match as well but CSK had won the match against Mumbai Indians by 5 wickets. In that match, Ambati Rayudu was present and top-scored with 71 and Faf Du Plessis also scored 58 off 44 balls as CSK chased 163 easily with 4 balls to spare.
“There is nothing wrong if you end up getting out early, at least start leading from the front, trying to inspire the team as well. What you did in the last over, probably if you’d done that coming in at No. 4 or 5, alongside Faf, you could have made a game out of it. But probably there was no such intent to make a game out of it,” said Gambhir.
“I thought that after the first six overs, they had literally given up on the game. I thought there was no intent to win the game and they were never there in the chase. So I thought it was an absolute miscalculation, probably not the right captaincy as well. This is not how you ask someone like MS to lead the side,” he added.
For CSK against RR, Faf du Plessis top-scored after playing a whirlwind knock of 72 from just 37 balls. Earlier, Sanju Samson had played a stellar knock of 74 runs from just 32 balls to take Rajasthan Royals to 216/7 in the stipulated twenty overs. Skipper Steve Smith also registered 69 runs off 47 balls.
The match-changing moment had come in the final over of Rajasthan Royal’s innings when tail-ender Jofra Archer smashed CSK’s pacer Lungi Ngidi for 30 runs. Jofra Archer scored 27 off 8 balls including 4 sixes. CSK will next play Delhi Capitals on September 25 while Rajasthan Royals will next face Kings XI Punjab on September 27.