IPL 2020: Gaikwad shines again as CSK defeats Punjab by nine wickets, ends latter's play-off hopes 

KXIP needed a win in their final league game to remain in contention for the play-offs besides depending on other results.
CSK bowler Lungisani Ngidi celebrates the wicket of Kings XI Punjab's Mayank Agarwal during the IPL match at Sheikh Zayed Stadium in Abu Dhabi Sunday Nov. 1 2020. (Photo | PTI)
CSK bowler Lungisani Ngidi celebrates the wicket of Kings XI Punjab's Mayank Agarwal during the IPL match at Sheikh Zayed Stadium in Abu Dhabi Sunday Nov. 1 2020. (Photo | PTI)

ABU DHABI: One of IPL's most significant announcements in the tournament’s 13-year history happened around 3.00 pm IST. After MS Dhoni decided to insert Kings XI Punjab in, the presenter Danny Morrison addressed the elephant in the room.

The question — a variation of “will Dhoni play another IPL season” — had to be asked. The 39-year-old smiled. He had come prepared to answer this. “Definitely not my last game in yellow,” he said, while still smiling.

This newspaper understands that the franchise has explicitly conveyed to their skipper that they have not lost faith in him.

To state the obvious, Dhoni will continue as skipper for the franchise in 2021. Is that the right decision? There are two points to address here: Dhoni the finisher and Dhoni the leader.

It’s fairly obvious that he is, going purely by the metrics he has served up this year, not the batsman he was in the past.

This season has been his worst for runs scored (200), highest score (47 n.o), average (25), strike rate (116.27), 4s (16) and 6s (7) while wearing the ubiquitous yellow jersey.

Even if some of that can be put down to a lack of match practice because of the coronavirus pandemic, the inference is simple. He can no longer reduce end over battles to a simple ‘bowler vs himself’ contest.

In fact, he tried to do that a few times in 2020 but his body failed him every time. To be fair to him, he seems to be cognisant of a decline in his power game.

He has promoted the likes of Sam Curran, Ravindra Jadeja — two bonafide power-hitters in the line-up — over himself at various stages this season.

The question to ask, then, is does his batting merit a place in a side? Not as a finisher but as an accumulator, maybe he does.

Considering he has made peace with his vaning powers and given his qualities as a keeper remain as sharp as ever, one can state that his batting role has evolved.

To address Dhoni the leader is a bit more complicated. It’s true that after a decade of famous wins, thrilling heists and reverse engineering the game to his will, Dhoni was found wanting in that department this season.

That Chennai will be on the outside looking in during the play-offs for the first time ever suggests that. But it’s also true that this season has been unlike any other from Dhoni’s perspective.

There was a virus outbreak in his side. After that, two of his trusted lieutenants — Suresh Raina and Harbhajan Singh — left the squad. Suddenly, all bets were off and Dhoni and the top management had to rip up that carefully planned dossier.

Having given Chennai a trophy-laden decade, one can argue he deserves the opportunity to course correct. Will he be able to do that? Much of what Chennai can accomplish in the next six months depends on the size of the auction.

If word on the street is to be believed, it will be limited. In such a case, Dhoni could be hamstrung.

They will need at least three automatic starters — an overseas opener, a young bowler capable of regularly bowling four overs and a middle-order six-hitting machine (the team only scored 75 sixes, an average of less than six per game).

Even more damning, they don’t have enough boundary hitters. Among the eight teams, Chennai have had only seven batsmen who cleared the ropes, the worst.

If one of the format’s most successful figureheads can solve a few of these issues in the off-season, normalcy can be restored. If not, the seven words uttered by Dhoni at the toss could come back to bite him.

Brief scores: KXIP 153/6 in 20 ovs (Hooda 62 n.o, Ngidi 3/39) lost to CSK 154/1 in 18.5 ovs (Gaikwad 62 n.o, Du Plessis 48).

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