IPL 2020: MS Dhoni Aims To See CSK Returning Stronger In The Next Edition Of Cash-Rich League

Nov 2, 2020 at 1:34 PM

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IPL 2020: MS Dhoni Aims To See CSK Returning Stronger In The Next Edition Of Cash-Rich League

MS Dhoni on Sunday said that Chennai Super Kings (CSK) would come back strongly and their core group of players will be shuffled as they look forward to the next 10 years after the franchise finished all their games in the group stage.

Chennai Super Kings captain MS Dhoni said the franchise would look to overhaul their core group of players and build a new core group which will hopefully reverse fortunes.

MS Dhoni
MS Dhoni (Image Credit: Twitter)

MS Dhoni: CSK Need To Change Their Core Group Which Depends A Lot On Auctions In 2021

CSK beat Kings XI Punjab in their last league game by 9 wickets after successfully chasing 154 to win. At the post-match presentation, MS Dhoni said that the team would come back strongly after not qualifying for the first time in playoffs in IPL. CSK were the only team to qualify for playoffs each season until 2020.

“We need to slightly change our core group and look for the next 10 years,” MS Dhoni said after the team’s final league game.

“At the start of the IPL, we made a team and it served well. There comes a time where you have to shift a bit, hand it over to the next generation.”

MS Dhoni, 39, who took retirement from international cricket before the start of IPL 2020, vowed that he would continue to play quashing rumours about his retirement after CSK finished 7th with 6 wins and 8 losses with 12 points.

“We’ll come back stronger, that’s what we are known for,” he said.

The 2011 World Cup-winning captain initiated IPL retirement rumours when he handed over his signed jerseys to players of Kolkata Knight Riders who lost against CSK. But, at the toss for Sunday’s game against Kings XI Punjab, MS Dhoni himself confirmed that he would be there next season when asked by former New Zealand pacer Danny Morrison if the game against Punjab was his last for CSK.

“(The jerseys) maybe they thought I’m retiring,” he said at the presentation ceremony. 

“It was a difficult campaign. We committed a lot of errors. The last four games were a template of where we would like to be.”

Suresh Raina, Harbhajan Singh
Suresh Raina, Harbhajan Singh

“I don’t think we played to the full potential. If you are lagging too much, it becomes very difficult to push yourself and come up with performances. Very proud the way they played their cricket. It would have been very tough 6-7 games.

“You won’t want to be in a dressing room that is not really enjoying cricket. You want to keep coming up with different ideas but if the dressing room atmosphere is not happy, it becomes very tough.”

“A lot depends on what the BCCI decides upon the auction. This has been a tough year. This is one of the seasons where most of the teams played well,” he added.

He acknowledged that IPL 2020 was a difficult campaign as they went wrong in team selections, frequent changes in the batting order and rotation of bowlers as consistent backing of non-performers like Kedar Jadhav backfired.

Besides, the team missed the services of Suresh Raina and Harbhajan Singh, both of whom opted out as well as injury to Dwayne Bravo and Ambati Rayudu, who later recovered. Imran Tahir, who was the leading wicket-taker in IPL 2019, was not given opportunities to showcase the talent and was considered only after CSK was eliminated from playoffs race.

MS Dhoni Credits Ruturaj Gaikwad For Yet Another 50

The 23-year-old Ruturaj Gaikwad stood out again with his fine batting and temperament, and MS Dhoni was full of admiration for the batsman.

“Whenever we have seen Rutu bat, he’s somebody who has done well in net sessions. But we were not able to see him in games. Then he got Covid, and even after 20 days he was not fit. He didn’t get time for us to gauge…”

Ruturaj Gaikwad
Ruturaj Gaikwad (Image Credit: IPL)

“… That was one of the main reasons we kept going with Faf and Watson. It didn’t work. But that’s the point where you go with the experienced players,” MS Dhoni asserted.

Ruturaj Gaikwad started slowly failing to score runs in initial matches but then scored 3 fifties to take his total runs in debut IPL season to 204 in six matches averaging 51. Ruturaj Gaikwad had scored three consecutive fifties after three consecutive single-digit scores in the first three matches. Incidentally, CSK have won their last three matches against RCB, KKR and KXIP.

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