IPL 2020 : MS Dhoni now under fire from Virender Sehwag, ‘looked like he wasn’t even trying

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IPL 2020: After Gautam Gambhir, Virender Sehwag has now called MS Dhoni for his poor captaincy. Sehwag has rated Dhoni’s performance in CSK’s opening game as 4 out of 10, and has said that, ‘It looked like he wasn’t even trying’. 

Chennai Super Kings (CSK) lost their 2nd match of IPL 2020 against Rajasthan Royals by 16 runs on Tuesday. Chasing a mammoth target of 217 runs, CSK faltered badly. 

But what was more baffling that Dhoni even in absence of Suresh Raina decided to drop himself to No.7 in the batting order.  Fans and experts were surpsied to see MS Dhoni not coming up the order despite the asking rate surging up to as high as 20. MS Dhoni walked in only after the dismissal of Kedar Jadhav.

“The three sixes that MS Dhoni hit in the last over made it feel like CSK came close to the target, but the reality was something different. In the middle, it looked like Dhoni wasn’t even trying to chase the target considering the number of dot balls he played,” declared Sehwag.

The former Indian captain in the post match conference said that he took the call of coming down the order because of his long absence from professional cricket. Notably, MS Dhoni returned to action after 437 days of hiatus. MS Dhoni launched 3 consecutive sixes in the final over but failed to take his team past the winning margin.

IPL 2020 : Sehwag raises big questions on the captaincy of MS Dhoni

Former India opener Virender Sehwag has criticised MS Dhoni for his ‘strange’ decisions and given 4 points out of 10 for hs captaincy in the match against Rajasthan Royals (RR).

“I feel Dhoni could’ve batted higher up or even sent Ravindra Jadeja to bat after Sam Curran got out. The run-rate slowed down in the middle overs. If that hadn’t happened and about 20-22 runs were required to win in the last over, the three sixes that Dhoni hit would’ve made people say ‘wow, what a finish’,” the 41-year-old told Cricbuzz.

“If over 30 runs are required, those three sixes wouldn’t make a difference. I think Dhoni could’ve batted over Kedar Jadhav at least. The number of balls Jadhav played, had Dhoni been the one facing them, CSK wouldn’t have finished with the deficit of 17-18 runs that they did,” he further explained.

“Even while CSK were fielding, Dhoni’s captaincy had some strange decisions. He continued giving overs to Jadeja and Piyush Chawla despite them leaking runs. The four overs that CSK’s spinners bowled to Sanju Samson, put the game in Rajasthan’s favour,” Sehwag highlighted.

“Dhoni then brought Lungi Ngidi who dismissed Samson a then Chawla was brought back into the attack. In his final two overs, Chawla only conceded 8 runs. This shows that Dhoni should’ve made these changes earlier,”Sehwag added.

 

IPL 2020 : Gambhir also had asked “Why Dhoni came to bat at No. 7″

 

Before Sehwag, Gambhir also had questioned Dhoni’s decision to bat at No.7.  According to Gambhir, it was surprising to see Dhoni coming to bat at number 7 with CSK chasing 217 for the win. 

 

Speaking to ESPNcricinfo, Gambhir said Dhoni’s move to bat at 7 does not ‘make any sense’.  Dhoni came in during the 14th over of the Super Kings’ chase, with his team needing 103 off 38 balls and a struggling Faf du Plessis on 17 off 18 balls at the other end.

 

“I was a bit surprised to be honest,” Gambhir said. 

“MS Dhoni batting at No. 7? And sending [Ruturaj] 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. Batting at No. 7 when you’re chasing what… 213 [217]? The game was over. Faf was probably the lone warrior.

“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.”

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