CSK have lost two of their first three games for the first time since 2012 and there seems to be no imminent solution in sight. MS Dhoni, the man with a Midas touch, is unsure of his own move and we just finished the first week of the IPL; Surely the world couldn’t be stranger.
It doesn’t really happen often because that’s what MS Dhoni is all about. You could hate him to the core, ripping your hair out in frustration at what he was trying to do, but when it comes to results, CSK delivers in an amazing way. They win in situations you never imagined possible and they play boring cricket, but they have had a better chance of winning the trophy than any other team in history; in a word, they are the best opponents in the age of slam-bang cricket. Hate them or love them, you certainly can’t ignore them.
At the most recent IPL mega auction in 2018, Chennai Super Kings decided not to run for glitz and returned to the main pool they had been able to absorb in the years leading up to their two-year ban. They were mocked after the auction, but won their third title before claiming the runner-up trophy the following season. Pragmatism, and not perception and feelings, was the central idea of the team, as there was a great deal of confidence in the process to finish what must have been a rigorous exercise.
But what happens to them now? Sure enough, Suresh Raina’s absence was a massive hit to her back, but how could the team get so weird in the process that they forgot the basics of a batting order? The first win wasn’t a convincing bowling performance, but the hitting was spot on. In the second game, it could be argued that they played the NRR game perfectly after Murali Vijay played 21 balls for a dogmatic 20 and Faf du Plessis took his time to calm down. But has there been a day when MS Dhoni did not trust his own abilities, and by extension his team’s, as much as he was against Delhi Capitals?
The party was a history of two completely contrasted ideologies. CSK is committed to its ancestral formula, while Delhi Capitals exudes the power of youth. While we’ve come to associate Dhoni with value for money, DC’s are all ‘Wham, Bam, Thank you, Ma’am’. Therefore, a team’s plans were always going to fail, but the way it did it for CSK landed an uncomfortable truth that they had somehow managed to overcome in recent years.
Let’s get one thing clear. It is criminal to have Murali Vijay as the starter in 2020. Even if he scores a couple of quick fifties in some games down the road, it is a responsibility worth disapproving of and there are no two ways to do it. Shane Watson is a big game player, but takes his time establishing himself, after which it’s still a lottery. Ambati Rayudu somehow provides the guarantee of stability that Suresh Raina provided to a great extent over the years, but if your higher order combines 50 balls to establish itself, with no guarantee of dividend, even Andre Russell in his 2019 avatar would find the one. Total disheartening. . Of course, it doesn’t help when MS Dhoni, who in his prime took on Muttiah Muralitharan and Ajantha Mendis like a piece of cake, is horrified at the prospect of taking on spinners in the middle.
Dhoni scores 6.17 runs ahead at intermediates since CSK returned to the fold in 2018, with Faf du Plessis managing to push his score to 7.33 and Rayudu to 7.31 during this span. He speaks of a general trend in the team failing to capitalize on the spinners, who will surely come to bite them once the turf is gone in the final stage of the tournament. But again, CSK is known to be at the top of their game when spinning too much and it will be an interesting battle of perception and the obvious as the 2020 IPL progresses with their behemoth.
But will that solve Dhoni’s riddle? Has there ever been a time when MS Dhoni openly admitted his lack of resources at CSK and admitted that “hitting lacks strength”? Of course, he has done it while he was running India, where he has an answer to give to the higher authorities, but at CSK, the dynamics are different. As N Srinivasan has said several times in the past, the franchise does not interfere in their cricket affairs and Dhoni, along with Stephen Fleming, takes the call on their matter. So it was a little surprise when the CSK captain made excuses beyond what is permissible after the Delhi game.
Now that Rayudu will return for the match against Sunrisers, a team that is fighting its own demons, there is momentum in the higher order, but in the gratification, there is a statement. Is CSK brave enough to show Vijay the door and ask Ruturaj Gaikwad, who, despite all his success in domestic cricket, is still a conservative hitter, to open alongside Watson? Can they take down Kedar Jadhav, who is no longer bowling, a drag on the field and also a total tragedy with the bat, to warm up the bench and bring a more fluid option like N Jagadeeshan at the top of the order? ? And did Dhoni strive to fill the void? Because we all know where the ball stops and, realizing this, is the highest evaluation of CSK for next season. MS Dhoni is the key and a strong statement to hit the spot will distill the dust out of the “confused” water.
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