Former India wicketkeeper-batsman Parthiv Patel is of the opinion MS Dhoni would be determined to set the ball rolling for Chennai Super Kings’ in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2021 after failing to qualify for the playoffs in the 13th season of the cash-rich T20 league.
“See, obviously they must be slightly disappointed that they have to get out of Chennai because they have got Moeen Ali in their squad, they have got K Gowtham in their squad. Last year, what went wrong for CSK was, that they were not getting enough runs on the board. Then, in the latter half of the tournament, you saw the emergence of Ruturaj Gaikwad,” Parthiv Patel said on Star Sports’ show Cricket Connected.
“And now with Suresh Raina coming in the squad. I think he holds the key in the CSK line-up and we have seen what he has done throughout the years of IPL. With him coming back and Ruturaj Gaikwad doing well in domestic cricket and plus MS Dhoni, they’re great players and you can’t count them out for too long,” Parthiv further said.
“He (MS Dhoni) had an indifferent season last year but as we saw how keen he is (spoke to him few times) and he is very determined to get CSK’s ball rolling to start with,” Parthiv added.
“These are the teams who have done well and they know that once they win the first game or the second game — they can start believing again. So, it won’t take much time for CSK to start the tournament in a positive manner,” Parthiv further said.
IPL 2021 will begin on April 9 and the final will be played on May 30. CSK will play Shreyas Iyer-led Delhi Capitals in their first match on April 10 in Mumbai.
