IPL 2020: ‘The more Dhoni plays, the more his body will be tuned’ – Kapil Dev advises CSK skipper MS Dhoni

IPL 2020: ‘The more Dhoni plays, the more his body will be tuned’ – Kapil Dev advises CSK skipper MS Dhoni
MS Dhoni

Chennai Super Kings (CSK) skipper MS Dhoni and his team have had an Indian Premier League season to forget. For the first time in their history, the franchise has failed to qualify for the playoffs of the tournament. Besides, the position that the team finished in i.e. 7th doesn’t inspire confidence at all.

CSK have struggled this season with respect to intent, fielding and closing out chases. Their batsmen have not come together as a unit. None of them has been able to put up consistent performances with the bat excluding Faf du Plessis whose form also waned towards the end. They have had very few shining sparks like Sam Curran and Ravindra Jadeja at times, but as a team they have looked nowhere near the ‘force to reckon with’ that they were in the past.

The form of their skipper MS Dhoni has been a huge cause of concern for the side as well. For the first time in IPL history, the 39-year-old didn’t hit a single half-century in a season. He ended up mustering a mere 200 runs over the course of the 14 matches. He struggled with middling and timing the ball. Despite there being rumors of this retirement from the IPL, Dhoni dismissed them saying “Definitely Not”.

‘Dhoni should go back to first-class cricket’ – Kapil Dev

Kapil Dev

Commenting on CSK and Dhoni’s performance in this year’s IPL, former World Cup winning captain for India, Kapil Dev who recently underwent angioplasty following a heart attack, spoke about what Dhoni should do to regain his touch and form. “If Dhoni decides on playing only IPL every year, then it’s impossible for him to perform. It’s not a good thing to talk about age but at his age, the more he plays, the more his body will be tuned,” Kapil told ABP News

“If you don’t play any cricket for ten months a year and suddenly play IPL, you can see what happened. You can always have a season up or down if you have played so much cricket. It has happened to someone like Chris Gayle also,” the former all-rounder said.

Kapil added that Dhoni must play domestic cricket throughout this year. He said, “He should go back to first-class cricket (domestic List A and T20) and play there. If someone has achieved so much, the dip in form does affect and it becomes a challenge. Let’s see how he comes out of it.”

Only time will tell if the legendary MS Dhoni takes the advice of Kapil Dev and a lot of others and decides to play first-class cricket before the 2021 IPL.

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