Chennai Super Kings (CSK) icon MS Dhoni has been batting lower down the order for several seasons now. While he thrived in this role last season, it hasn’t quite yielded the desired results this year. Dhoni’s promotion to number 9 in the run chase against Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) raised a lot of eyebrows. His former CSK teammate Robin Uthappa is still struggling to understand the logic behind sending Ravichandran Ashwin ahead of Dhoni when the required run rate was slipping away. Uthappa didn’t hold back his frustration, using expletives as he questioned the decision to have Dhoni bat so low in the order.
“Frustrated. F***g frustrated. What the f**k is going on, dude! He might as well have batted even lower than No. 9. It wouldn’t have made a difference. I would say ‘befuddlement’ is too weak a term. What the heck! Like, what is the thinking? Because you know you won’t win the game by the time he’s coming to bat. By the time Ashwin’s coming to bat, you know you have less than a slim chance of winning,” Uthappa said on The KimAppa Show with cricket analyst Jarrod Kimber.
“The only thing you can do to give yourself the best chance is to reduce that net run rate. The margins in the IPL are so tight towards the end that you want to keep your net run rate as positive as possible, right?” he added.
Uthappa Questions Dhoni’s Batting Position: Strategic Shift or Misstep?
Dhoni walked into bat when CSK were struggling at 99/7 in 15.2 overs, needing 98 runs from the remaining 28 balls, a near-impossible task. He switched to full attack mode in the final over, bowled by left-arm spinner Krunal Pandya. The wicketkeeper-batter remained unbeaten, scoring 30 off 16 balls with three fours and two sixes. However, CSK ultimately lost the match by 50 runs.
“What confuses me is that the asking rate was so high in the 13th and 14th over (in the game vs RCB). I was like, there’s no way MS is going to come below number eight cause at number eight, you still felt like I want the other guys to take the chunk of the workload, so if push comes to shove, I’m going to be there,” said Uthappa.
“Here push came to shove and then went some more as well, and still he had turned up, and then you’re wondering what’s the thinking behind this because it doesn’t augur well for CSK,” Uthappa added.
Earlier, Dhoni expressed his desire to bat lower down the order to give others a chance to make a case for India’s T20I squad. However, with Ashwin retiring from international cricket and Jadeja stepping down from T20Is after the T20 World Cup 2024, the scenario changed. In a match against Rajasthan Royals in Guwahati, Dhoni came in to bat at number 7 during a chase of 183. He scored 16 off 11 balls but was caught by Shimron Hetmyer in the final over. CSK lost the match by six runs.
