Chennai Super Kings Slumped to their second straight loss in IPL 2024 as SunRisers Hyderabad romped home with six wickets to spare. After starting with two wins, new CSK captain Ruturaj Gaikwad must be feeling a little bit under pressure. Speaking on Star Sports on Australian great Matthew Hayden commented on Ruturaj Gaikwad’s captaincy, said, “There were a couple of decisions which weren’t quite sharp. When you think of Moeen Ali as an all-rounder, he ended up contributing nicely with the ball, but he should have been batted up the order. He should have been given a licence. They were lagging inside that power play.”
He went on to analyse some of the decisions made by Gaikwad.
“They were 1 for 49 in the power play. So to me, they needed an injection of some hope and some courage, and Moeen Ali could have provided that. With the ball, I think they probably could have bowled Theekshana straight away to Travis Head. It’s a great match-up. Don’t wait until the fourth over. He went for plenty of that second over. So for me, Theekshana straight up front against Travis Head could have been a better move,” he said.
“So some sharp action was needed, and I think it can never be easy with a cloud of MS Dhoni around you, and I’m not saying that’s because of MS Dhoni. But it is what it is. He is Thala. So Ruturaj Gaikwad might be having that sort of pressure inside him, and maybe his reaction and decision-making process need to be just a little quicker and a little sharper.”
Former Indian cricketer Irfan Pathan spoke on CSK batting order and felt that MS Dhoni should have batted up the order.
” I said that in the Hindi commentary as well, that when Mukesh and Deepak Chahar were bowling with the new ball, actually their strength lies with the new ball. So it must be very tough for Ruturaj Gaikwad as well to get Maheesh Theekshana in attack. That temptation would have been there because of Travis Head. I would have actually pushed the same point what Matthew Hayden has said, that get Maheesh Theekshana to bowl. That maybe give a little breather to Mukesh, make him bowl at later stage. To understand where the pressure is left because Mukesh’s strength is with the new ball, and yes he hasn’t played first-class cricket for literally for 15 months and that’s a long time, ” he said.
“The other thing, which I think, apart from Moeen Ali, Mahendra Singh Dhoni could have batted up the order just purely because of the match-up. Match-up against Bhuvneshwar Kumar, and Jaydev Unadkat. He has played well against both of them, especially in the later stage of the game. Plus, when Pat Cummins bowling into the pitch, it would have been easier for right-hander to hit on the leg side with that angle in rather than against a left-hander because for the left-hander we saw that Ravindra Jadeja just couldn’t get going and in the end that was the difference as well.
Topics mentioned in this article
