Former India captain Kris Srikkanth mince no words for MS Dhoni after the Chennai Super Kings (CSK) succumbed to a seven-wicket loss against the Rajasthan Royals (RR), calling his selections throughout the season as “ridiculous” and “rubbish”.
Monday’s defeat was CSK’ seventh in the ongoing IPL, leaving them rooted to the bottom of the points table and in danger of missing the playoffs for the first time in the history of the tournament.
After the game, Dhoni told the official broadcasters that the youngsters in his team had not shown the kind of “spark” that would have warranted their inclusion in the playing XI.
A visibly distraught Srikkanth, however, rubbished Dhoni’s claims, taking particular umbrage over the selection of Piyush Chawla and Kedar Jadhav, who he had suggested needed a ‘scooter’ to move around quickly on the field.
“I will never accept what Dhoni is saying about this process,” Srikkanth told Star Sports Tamil. “This process he keeps talking about is meaningless. You keep talking about process, process… but the process of selection itself is wrong.”
Srikkanth singled out the case of N. Jagadeesan as an example of someone who had not been given a fair chance. Jagadeesan has played just one game this season in which he scored 33 off 28 balls. Jadhav, meanwhile, has played eight matches making just 62 runs in total and has struggled to make an impact.
“What is Dhoni’s deal? He says Jagadeesan doesn’t have spark, but does ‘scooter’ Jadhav have that spark? This is ridiculous. I will not accept this answer today. All this talk of process, and Chennai’s tournament itself is over.
“Dhoni now says that since the pressure is off, he’ll give the youngsters a chance. Come on, yaar. I don’t understand this rubbish about the process at all. What spark didn’t he see in Jagadeesan? What spark did he see in Jadhav and Piyush Chawla?
“Karn Sharma at least took wickets. Chawla simply goes through the motions of bowling, coming on when the game is already lost. Dhoni may be a pistha (big shot) and there is no doubt he is great, but I cannot agree with him saying that the ball didn’t grip. I won’t accept that.”
