NEW DELHI: Mahendra Singh Dhoni did not lead from the front by dropping himself down the batting order during a mammoth chase, opined former India batsman Gautam Gambhir, tearing into CSK captain’s decision to bat at number seven against Rajasthan Royals.
The former India opener reckons that if any other captain had done this, he would have drawn a lot of flak but since it is Dhoni, people are not even talking about it. With Chennai Super Kings chasing a massive 217-run target in Sharjah, Dhoni came to bat when they needed 103 runs from 38 balls.
Dhoni sent the likes of Sam Curran, Ruturaj Gaikwad and Kedar Jadhav ahead of him. CSK lost the match by 16 runs. “I was a bit surprised to be honest. MS Dhoni batting at No. 7? And sending (Ruturaj) Gaikwad, Sam Curran before him. Makes no sense to me. In fact you should be leading from the front,” Gambhir told ESPNcricinfo’s T20 Time Out.
“This is not what you call leading from the front. Batting at No. 7 when you’re chasing 217. The game was over. Faf was probably the lone warrior,” he said.
“See, if someone else would have done this, some other (batsman) captain had batted at No. 7, he would have got a lot of flak.
It is MS Dhoni – probably that’s why people don’t talk about it.”
Dhoni has argued that he did not get enough time to prepare due to an extended quarantine period, so he did not come to out bat early.
“I haven’t batted for a long time. 14-day quarantine doesn’t help,” he said after the match. Dhoni’s reference was to CSK’s extra one-week quarantine after 13 people in their contingent tested positive for COVID-19,
resulting in missing out on important training sessions.
The 38-year-old Gambhir, who played 58 Tests and 147 ODIs between 2003 and 2016, also questioned CSK’s intent to win the game.
—PTI

Press Trust of India