It is safe to say that CSK haven’t been at their best in IPL 2020. They are placed 8th in the points table and are one step away from getting knocked out of the tournament. MS Dhoni’s Chennai Super Kings continued their woeful run in IPL 2020 as they lost to Rajasthan Royals by seven wickets in the match at the Sheikh Zayed Stadium in Abu Dhabi. This was Chennai Super Kings’ seventh loss in 10 games in this edition of the Indian Premier League and it has all but ended their chances of qualifying for the play-offs The build-up to IPL 2020 has not helped with Chennai Super Kings players being impacted by the coronavirus and also the withdrawal of Suresh Raina and Harbhajan Singh due to personal reasons.

 

However, during the post-match presentation, MS Dhoni made a comment on youngsters that have not gone down well with many people. “Insecurity is something you don’t want to prevail in the dressing room. Fair enough, this season we weren’t really there. Also, there were few chances for the youngsters. Maybe we didn’t see the kind of spark that they could’ve given us to say okay you know push the experienced guys and make space for them. But what this result has done is to give those youngsters whatever is left in our league stages. They will get a chance and have no real pressure on them so they can go out and express themselves and give us the option of looking at the other options in the batting lineup or where they’d like to bat,” Dhoni said. This has resulted in a lot of backlash and a lot of people have been criticising the former Indian captain. former Indian cricketer Kris Srikkanth lashed out at MS Dhoni for the continuous use of the word ‘process’. “I won’t accept what Dhoni is saying. This talk of process, process… I won’t agree with that. You’re talking about process, but the process of selection itself is wrong,” Srikkanth said.” A guy like Jagadeesan… you’re saying youngsters don’t have spark, does Kedar Jadhav have spark? Did Piyush Chawla show spark? Come on, this is all ridiculous, I will not accept his answers today. By going on and on about the process, CSK’s tournament is going to end. By saying that they will give opportunities from now to youngsters… come on, Jagadeesan showed some spark. At least Karn Sharma was getting wickets even if he was expensive. Piyush Chawla was brought into the attack after the match was done and dusted. Dhoni is a great cricketer, there is no doubt about that but I won’t accept him saying that the ball didn’t grip. I won’t accept that,” Srikkanth fumed on Star Sports Tamil.

 

Thus Kris Srikkanth criticised MS Dhoni’s selection policies, calling them ridiculous and rubbish. Calling the selection process wrong, Kris Srikkanth said that he will never accept what MS Dhoni is saying about the process. Many fans on social media criticised MS for his statement and weren’t very happy about the fact that Dhoni didn’t believe in the youngsters in his team. CSK are all set to face the defending champions in their next clash. They still have a mathematical chance of reaching the playoffs and they would hope for the best.

By Arvind Krishnan

Cricket writer, statistician and analyst. An unorthodox media student, marketing runs in his blood. Sports Marketer and analyst.