Lucknow: SHIVAM Dube, Vijay Shankar, Ravindra Jadeja and Rahul Tripathi had a long session of batting while R Ashwin bowled continuously even as batters facing him kept changing here at Ekana on Sunday evening. But what caught the attention was the initial absence of Chennai Super Kings' skipper MS Dhoni.
Injury to their captain Ruturaj Gaikwad meant the former India skipper was given the reins of the team once again ahead of CSK's previous match against Kolkata Knight Riders in Chennai. It hardly made any difference as the team's campaign went from bad to worse with the defending champions registering a comprehensive win. The loss was CSK's third straight defeat at home and fifth successive this season.
They might be struggling but all is not lost yet and eyes are on Dhoni to revive the team's campaign. Given the arduous task he has in his hand, Dhoni was the focal point as the team members arrived at the venue to prepare for their next clash. And that's why his absence hit everyone hard and led to some murmuring as well. Ending all those talks and speculations, Dhoni eventually walked onto the ground and was immediately joined by head physiotherapist of the team, Tommy Simsek.
They spent quite some time together. Dhoni had a brief spell of running with Simsek before putting on the batting pads. But he didn't go into the nets immediately as he laid down with the physiotherapist rubbing his back. Even before wearing the pads, Dhoni was seen holding his back but it hardly mattered as soon as he entered the nets.
It all started with a few throwdowns before the spinners including Ashwin took over. Given his struggles against the tweakers, Dhoni faced them in the nets at least for an hour. What started as a quiet session turned into a display of power hitting a few minutes later with the CSK skipper regularly launching the ball over the boundary.
Given the situation they are in at the moment, the five-time champions desperately want this version of Dhoni to turn up against Lucknow on Monday. They desperately need inspiration and who better than Dhoni to provide it. Head coach Stephen Fleming said the same but added everyone has to work hard along with the captain to achieve the desired result.
"His influence will always be prominent, but he's not a soothsayer, he hasn't got a magic wand, he can't just rub it over the side, otherwise he would have brought it out earlier. It's a case of us working very hard, along with MS, to turn it around," Fleming told the journalists during the pre-match press conference.
The coach said Dhoni and he had seen such situations in the past and the need of the hour is to focus on the right things. "Certainly in both of our cricketing careers, we've been in situations that require a lot of energy, and we've got to make sure that the energy is put in the right place. Often you can get consumed with things that actually don't matter, so drawing it all down and just making sure we're concentrating on the right things has probably been the key for the last couple of days."
The biggest issue with this CSK side is the dearth of power-hitters. Dhoni along with Jadeja, who took turns to bat in the nets with his captain, can resolve it to a degree if they succeed in providing momentum in that phase of the game. Shankar and Deepak Hooda were supposed to play that role in the middle phase but the duo are yet to provide fireworks.
It cannot happen overnight. The coach knows it as well and wants his team to turn their hurt into motivation to return to winning ways. "We've got to look at it in small steps and just continue to work to get better at all three facets, really, and then you start competing. I think the disappointing aspect, in particular the last game, was the lack of competition we put up, and that hurt a lot. So there's certainly been a lot of internal soul-searching, but also a lot of work around what we need to do, and it's important that we put a performance out that is representative of the proud franchise that we are. So yeah, there's a lot of hurt that we can turn to motivation, but it's not about words, it's about players grabbing the moment, finding form, finding their groove, and almost shaking off any apprehension which can creep in when you're just searching for a performance. So yeah, we're working really hard on what we think we need to do."
As Dhoni departed after sweating it out at the nets, Ashwin took over as faced spinners including from teammate Rachin Ravindra. Come Monday, the team, however, will hope its skipper finishes the game as he had done in the past with no one required to take over from him.