For the entire Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024, the question around the batting department of the former Chennai Super Kings (CSK) captain and current wicket-keeper batter, MS Dhoni, was his position in the batting order. The leader of the five-time champions was dropped down at number eight in the line-up while the rest of the batters were coming up.
There were many instances in the tournament where even if CSK lost more than five wickets early in the innings, MS Dhoni was selecting only the last few overs to make his introduction into the middle. The basic idea of his batting was generally to nail the big shots around the park.
In the 14 innings of the season, the Ranchi-born smashed 161 runs at an average of over 53 and a strike rate of more than 220 with the help of an unbeaten 37 runs as his best score. The right-handed batter drilled 14 boundaries and 13 over boundaries in the competition, which carried the fans down memory lane on many occasions.
Also Read: Dinesh Karthik Teaches Harsh Truth To Virat Kohli For Missing Duleep Trophy 2024-25
On the eve of the tournament, MS Dhoni handed over the captaincy to their young opening batter, Ruturaj Gaikwad, who played a decent role in the position but failed to carry the Yellow Army into the playoffs of the event with a defeat against the Royal Challengers Bengaluru in the last group stage fixture.
MS Dhoni reveals why he batted at eight for the entire IPL 2024
In a recent show, the veteran was asked about his decision to bat at lower down the order. Despite the fans being puzzled by the decision, the batter didn’t promote himself at any stage of the whole tournament. The former World Cup-winning captain responded that the decision was taken to give chances to the players who were fighting for a place in the T20 World Cup squad of India.
“My thinking was simple- if others are doing their job well, why do I need to come up with the order? If you’re talking about last year (season) specifically, the T20 World Cup squad was going to be announced soon. So we have to give people who are fighting for a spot a chance.” MS Dhoni shed light on the whole development during a recent interaction.
Ravindra Jadeja, the premier all-rounder of the Blue Brigade, along with the aggressive batter Shivam Dube, was in contention for the T20 World Cup squad.
“In our team (CSK), we had a few, (Ravindra) Jadeja, was there, Shivam Dube was there, so you allow them to prove themselves to get into the Indian team.” The former captain of India, who grabbed three ICC titles, remarked.
He emphasized that if the other batters were able to take on the finisher’s role, there was no requirement for him to move up the order in the line-up, while he was satisfied that his teammates appreciated the selfless approach.
There was nothing in it for me, no selection and other things. So I’m good behind (playing down the order), and my team was happy with what I was doing.” MS Dhoni added.
Also Read: Aakash Chopra Criticizes India Harshly For Dropping Kuldeep Yadav In 2nd Test vs New Zealand
The anticipation was if he would be taking part in the upcoming IPL 2025 ahead of the mega auction of the tournament. But the former CSK captain has hinted at a possible return for the new season, where he stated how he had been enjoying the game for the last few years.
That ended the speculation, and the Chennai Super Kings are expected to retain MS Dhoni for only INR 4 crores as an uncapped player, thanks to the new rule by the Governing Council (GC).
