IPL 2020: Kumar Sangakkara advises MS Dhoni to play competitive cricket after IPL

IPL 2020: Kumar Sangakkara advises MS Dhoni to play competitive cricket after IPL
CSK skipper MS Dhoni

Chennai Super Kings (CSK) skipper MS Dhoni has suffered from poor form over the course of this year’s Indian Premier League (IPL). His form has also coincided with his side’s worst run in the history of the franchise. CSK has for the first time, failed to qualify for the IPL playoffs. They’ve won just 5 matches out of 13 games and are languishing at the bottom spot in the points table.

Dhoni has failed to come up with a single match-winning knock for his side – something he used to do often in the previous seasons. The 39-year-old has managed to score just 200 runs this year. He has struggled with timing and middling the ball. His trademark sixes have dried up and he has more often than not wasted deliveries and failed to rotate singles. Despite calls from fans for his retirement, the CSK skipper seems determined to continue for at least another season in the IPL, having retired from international cricket.

‘Dhoni has got to be super-competitive’ – Kumar Sangakkara

Kumar Sangakkara

Former Sri Lankan captain Kumar Sangakkara who is now a part of the IPL’s commentary panel has spoken on what MS Dhoni has to do to regain his form. In a chat with Star Sports, the elegant left-hander said, “You will always have a season or series where you’re off the boil, and this is MS’. It has reflected on the team’s fortunes as well. And it’s something you get to expect. You can over analyse it, you analyse it any which way, it just happens. And it’s happened at the back end of MSD’s career.

“But that doesn’t make him a lesser player or less important for CSK at all. It’s just one of those phases that he has got to deal with and he’s got to come out of it,” he added.

“I am sure he is hungry to keep playing, hungry to perform. Knowing MSD, he would much rather take a team win than a half-century for himself. That’s the way he has been built, that’s the way he has always thought. If he can contribute to it in any way, even by scoring 10 runs he’d be happy,” Sangakkara further said on Dhoni’s mindset.

Sangakkara then advised Dhoni as to what to do in between IPL seasons to regain his form. His advice was for the CSK skipper to play competitive cricket and not lose touch with cricket. He said, “What he has to do is to play some more super-competitive cricket in between. You can’t have long gaps between your IPL seasons, not playing international cricket or not playing regional or first-class cricket. He has got to be super competitive and play competitive cricket to be in form.”

Also Read: Gautam Gambhir lambasts Dinesh Karthik for giving up captaincy