Gautam Gambhir has once again lashed out at MS Dhoni for his poor captaincy decision in CSK’s last game against Rajasthan Royals where Dhoni came out to bat at no. 7.
According to Gambhir, Dhoni should have led from the front and should have come out to bat up the order rather than sending the likes of Sam Curran and Ruturaj Gaikwad.
Gambhir was also in no mood to give Dhoni any credit for the three sixes that he hit in the last over of the game. Gambhir believes those were just personal runs which might have enhanced Dhoni’s strike rate, but they were of no use to the team.
“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,” Gambhir said on an ESPNcricinfo show.
Gautam Gambhir has criticized Dhoni in the past as well
Gambhir has been a vocal critic of Dhoni’s captaincy in the past as well and the way he spoke about Dhoni after yesterday’s match shouldn’t surprise anyone.
However, Dhoni had his own logical explanation of why he demoted himself down the order. The CSK skipper said he had not played any cricket for a long time and he didn’t have that much of a hit ahead of the start of the IPL either, as CSK was in an extended quarantine of 14 days.
So, he decided to send the likes of Sam Curran up the order which also gave him an opportunity to have a look at the young players in a game situation. However, Dhoni insisted as the tournament would progress further, the senior players of the team would come up and take responsibility.
The game against RR was CSK’s first of the only 3 games that they have to play in Sharjah. They have to play 11 of their games in Dubai and Abu Dhabi where the conditions suit them more.