Sharjah, (Asian independent) Chennai Super Kings (CSK) captain MS Dhoni on Friday admitted that his team’s chances of making it to the playoffs this season may have all but ended after their 10-wicket thrashing at the hands of Mumbai Indians on Friday, saying that the team would now be giving chances to players who haven’t played too many matches this season.
“I think it’s important for us to have a clear picture of next year. There are lots of ‘ifs’ and ‘buts’ — what kind of auction we are looking, where the venues will be. The coming three games will be an ideal opportunity to give platforms to players who have missed out. See some of the youngsters in preparation for the next year. A few more who are on the bench will get games in the coming three games,” said Dhoni after the match.
CSK were blown away by MI’s bowling attack led by Trent Boult with Sam Curran’s 52 dragging them to 114/9 wickets after which Ishan Kishan and Quinton de Kock ensured that they chase down the target without losing a wicket.
Dhoni said that the players have not done enough this season considering the kind of stats they have accrued over the course of their careers. CSK had incidentally started the season with a comfortable margin of five wickets.
“What you need to see is where we actually went wrong, right from the second game. It was more about the bowling and the batting was not turning up. [Ambati] Rayudu got injured, the other batsman were maybe not able to perform,” said Dhoni.
“Whenever we don’t get off to a good start, it puts pressure on the middle order. In cricket when you’re going through a tough phase, you need a bit of luck which hasn’t happened this year. The games we wanted to bat first, we haven’t won the toss, and there’s no dew and all of a sudden when we bat first there’s dew.”
