IPL 2020 - Losing the Match against SRH wasn’t Dhoni’s fault

The three-time IPL champions CSK lost to Sunrisers Hyderabad last Friday, October 2nd. They have suffered their third consecutive defeat in IPL 2020. After the 2014 IPL, for the first time, CSK lost three games back to back.

Experts are assuming that Chennai Super Kings and MS Dhoni not in a good phase during this IPL. And perhaps that is true as we have the results and performance of the team in front of our eyes.

Defeat after defeat for the team has brought them on the verge of huge criticism, especially for MS Dhoni. Everyone knows that the veteran wicketkeeper-batsman has not faced much criticism in the IPL seasons for his performance. However, this season is exceptional for him. It is surely inappropriate to blame the captain only for his team’s performance on the IPL ground. Let us take a look at 4 reasons why we shouldn’t blame MS Dhoni alone.

1. Openers’ poor performance

The openers of CSK haven’t given any over the top performance in all the 4 matches till now. Their dropping of Murali Vijay hadn’t made any difference in the match against SRH. We haven’t seen any performance from Shane Watson as well. He scored 33 runs in the second match and this was his highest out of the 4 matches. As Raina has opted not to play this year’s IPL and the openers’ lack of contribution is making games tough for CSK. The middle order is looking week and Kedar Jadhav is in poor form as well. The poor performance cannot be the fault of Dhoni.

2. The team cannot keep pace with required run-rates

The team is lacking the ability to keep pace with the required run-rates. This is a major issue of CSK and this is why they have lost the last three games. They are the three-time champions and their confidence or let’s say over-confidence is keeping them from showing any urgency with the bat from the beginning of the match. When MS Dhoni is coming to the crease to play, the team is already pretty much losing the game. With little support from the teammates, it is impossible for Dhoni to cope up with the runs.

3. Big names of CSK have opted not to play this time

Another reason to focus on! Just before the beginning of the tournament this time, Harbhajan Singh and Suresh Raina opted not to play for personal reasons. This has come as a huge setback for the team. CSK has still not declared any replacement for these two players.

4. Less time for training

13 members including two players tested positive for coronavirus before the tournament started. The entire team extended their quarantine period from 6 to 14 days. As per the schedule, CSK came to Dubai on 21 August and expected to begin training from 28 August. Sadly, due to the effect of coronavirus, nothing went according to plan and they got less time for training.

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