MS Dhoni is having a horrible batting season in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2021. He struggled with the bat last season in 2020, and his results haven’t improved this year. He has only scored 96 runs in 14 games this season, with a strike rate of 95.04 and an average of 13.71
Irfan Pathan voiced his dissatisfaction when discussing Dhoni’s form. He addressed the concerns that have been exposed by Dhoni’s dismissals in recent games. The CSK’s captain was removed in the previous match of the season by Ravi Bishnoi (PBKS), who bowled Dhoni with a perfect googly.
The former Indian captain attempted a drive and finished up chipping the ball back on the stumps. Pathan pointed out that MS Dhoni had also walked out to Varun Chakravarthy’s googly in a previous match. Chakravarthy has now dismissed Dhoni 3 times in the previous 2 IPL seasons for low scores.
“It is very disappointing to see him bat like that. It is understandable if you get out against the fast bowlers but Dhoni is not able to read the googly. It has happened repeatedly. It is not that it has happened for the first time. He got out to the googly against Varun Chakravarthy as well,” said Pathan.
Dhoni is not getting the chance to free his arms: Pathan
Moreover, the former all-rounder revealed that Dhoni is dealing with certain difficulties. He said that Dhoni’s use of the bottom hand resulted in his dismissal.
“Before this also, when the ball is coming on the stumps and he is not getting the chance to free his arms, there are problems. Here again, the ball was coming in from outside the off stump, he got an inside edge, this happens when you use the bottom hand a lot,” Pathan added.
Notwithstanding Dhoni’s poor batting performance, CSK has comfortably slipped into the top-4. In their first 14 games, they have won 9 matches. Therefore, they would be nervous heading into the playoffs since their loss against the Punjab Kings was their third loss in a sequence.
