Cricket fans have sort of made peace with MS Dhoni batting a limited number of balls in the IPL. It has been the case for the last few seasons. More than the batting number, Dhoni focuses on the balls remaining to decide when he should walk out to bat. Despite all this, No.9 seems too bitter a pill to digest. In Chennai Super Kings’ 197-run chase against the Royal Challengers Bengaluru at the Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai, Dhoni batted at No.9. The ones batting ahead of him were Sam Curran, Shivam Dube, Ravindra Jadeja and Ravichandran Ashwin.
In his prime, Dhoni was a cut above all of them. At 43, he has lost some of his sheen, but he still cannot bat lower than Ashwin in a T20 match if he is fit to be part of CSK’s XI. Definitely not when the asking rate is above 16 runs per over. Let’s be honest: Dhoni coming in at No.8 perhaps would not have made much of a difference in the outcome of Friday’s match as RCB were so far ahead of the game but it would have kept them on their toes.
When Ashwin got out for a laborious 11 off 8 with just boundary, taking the asking rate to 19 runs per over, it was way beyond even Dhoni’s miracle abilities.
So bizarre was Dhoni’s decision to bat at No.9 that former India opener Virender Sehwag, who has shared the dressing room with Dhoni for eight years, jokingly said the CSK legend came out to bat early as he generally prefers to bat in the last two overs of the innings.
“Jaldi aa gaye na (He came out to bat early),” Sehwag said, sparking a round of laughter in the Cricbuzz post-match show after RCB’s 50-run win.
