MS Dhoni, the skipper of Chennai Super Kings, was criticized by former Indian captain Kris Srikkanth for his comment that he did not see a spark in some of CSK’s youngsters present in the d after the match against Rajasthan Royals (RR) and questioned the inclusion of players like Kedar Jadhav and Piyush Chawla who have failed to perform repeatedly in the playing XI of the squad.
After CSK lost their match to Rajasthan Royals by seven wickets on Monday, MS Dhoni, during the post-match presentation ceremony, said that youngsters were not given a chance in the first 10 matches for CSK because they lacked spark in them. CSK managed only 125/5 which Rajasthan Royals overcame after Jos Buttler scored an unbeaten 70.
MS Dhoni: Didn’t See As Much Spark From Some Of CSK’s Youngsters.
The 39-year-old MS Dhoni said that he would like to give an opportunity to youngsters in the forthcoming matches as they will be under less pressure since the chance of qualifying for playoffs is almost gone.
But it was a surprising comment considering the youngsters could have given CSK chance to stay in the race for playoffs by good performance. MS Dhoni asserted that minimal pressure would help the youngsters perform better.
“It’s fair enough [the criticism for not playing youngsters], this season we weren’t there. Maybe we didn’t see as much spark from some of our youngsters. Maybe going forward we bring them in and they play without pressure,” MS Dhoni had said.
Kris Srikkanth reacted sharply and criticized MS Dhoni for his comments while speaking to Star Sports Tamil, saying that MS Dhoni undoubtedly is a “great cricketer”, ut he won’t accept his views and is against CSK’s selection policies after their defeat to RR.
The 60-year-old slammed Dhoni’s “believing in the process” comment as well and said, “I won’t accept what Dhoni is saying. This talk of process, process… I won’t agree with that. You’re talking about process, but the process of selection itself is wrong.”
The 1983 World Cup-winning cricketer questioned the presence of Kedar Jadhav and Piyush Chawla in the playing XI of CSK. Kedar Jadhav has repeatedly failed to perform with the for CSK and have managed to score only 62 runs from his 8 IPL 2020 matches at a strike rate of only 93.94 which is unacceptable in T20. Piyush Chawla, on the other hand, have leaked runs at an economy rate of 9.1 and has picked only 6 wickets in 7 matches averaging 31.83.
MS Dhoni’s Comments Criticized By Kris Srikkanth
24-year-old wicket-keeper batsman Narayan Jagadeesan was given a chance to prove himself against RCB, and he responded by scoring 33 runs off 28 balls. Kris Srikkanth used young Narayan Jagadeesan’s case to prove his case against MS Dhoni’s post-match comments. But Narayan Jagadeesan was not picked in next matches against Delhi, Hyderabad and Rajasthan and a player like Kedar Jadhav was given a chance.
“A guy like Jagadeesan… you’re saying youngsters don’t have spark, does Kedar Jadhav have spark? Did Piyush Chawla show spark? Come on, this is all ridiculous, I will not accept his answers today. By going on and on about the process, CSK’s tournament is going to end.”
“By saying that they will give opportunities from now to youngsters… come on, Jagadeesan showed some spark. At least Karn Sharma was getting wickets even if he was expensive.
“Piyush Chawla was brought into the attack after the match was done and dusted. Dhoni is a great cricketer, there is no doubt about that but I won’t accept him saying that the ball didn’t grip. I won’t accept that,” Kris Srikkanth added.
Three-time champions Chennai Super Kings who have qualified for playoffs every season are now the bottom-ranked in the 8-team IPL 2020 points table with only 3 wins and as many as 7 losses having 6 points in 10 matches.
CSK are without Suresh Raina, and Harbhajan Singh both of whom opted out, and replacements haven’t been made either. To make matters worse, all-rounder Dwayne Bravo is ruled out due to injury. He missed a few matches initially due to injury but played some matches before injury struck again.