The whole world wants to see MS Dhoni bat for five overs and not the last two: Suresh Raina

Ahead of the IPL 2024 former India cricketers Suresh Raina and Parthiv Patel previewed the opening match between Chennai Super Kings and Royal Challengers Bengaluru.

Excerpts:

Parthiv Patel on the match-up between CSK and RCB: We couldn’t have asked for a better start to the tournament. Looking at the pitch, it may be a bit slow, but we always see the IPL get off to a blockbuster start. The biggest takeaways for me from tonight’s game will be how Virat Kohli bats and the position at which MS Dhoni plays.

Also read: IPL 2024: Chennai Super Kings CEO Kasi Viswanathan reacts on MS Dhoni stepping down from captaincy

Suresh Raina on what to expect from MS Dhoni: The best thing is that he’s looking fit. He looks to be in good form and is batting well. But, I would want to see him bat higher in the order. The whole world wants to see him bat for five overs and not the last two overs. When he comes to the crease, he’ll take some time to settle down and you’ll see his helicopter sixes after that. He went through an operation, he will not be captaining, so this will be a big IPL for him. He would be hoping that CSK can maintain a champion’s mindset. That will happen when Ruturaj Gaikwad, Shivam Dube and Daryl Mitchell set the tone. So, they have to tick a lot of boxes.

Also read: IPL 2024: MS Dhoni steals show with helicopter shot during CSK practice session

Parthiv Patel on Virat Kohli coming back to competitive cricket after two months: When the stage is big, Kohli delivers. His intensity is so high that he does not need to look for motivation. He has almost 1,000 runs against CSK in the IPL, and he has batted at different positions. So, I think he’ll open and score his runs. But what will matter is the strike rate that he maintains. That’s from the point of view of the T20 World Cup. Because in the Indian team we have Rohit Sharma and Yashasvi Jaiswal opening the innings. Will Kohli bat for India as an opener or at No. 3 is a question that has to be answered.

Also read: Virat Kohli hits the nets after two months, looks in sublime touch ahead of IPL 2024

Suresh Raina, on whether Kohli will open the innings against CSK: I think he’ll open the innings with Faf du Plessis. They have batsmen below them who can strike the ball well. On a wicket like this, we’ll see him run a lot of singles. His form will be very important in the context of the T20 World Cup because the wickets in the West Indies are slow. He won’t be short on motivation especially after Smriti Mandhana and her team have lifted the WPL trophy!

Also read: CSK have to get Virat Kohli out in the Powerplay: Matthew Hayden

Suresh Raina on whether RCB can beat CSK in Chennai: I think RCB have the team to beat CSK. Also, whichever team plays against CSK will say that Ruturaj is now the captain, not Dhoni, so there’s the psychological factor as well. The heat of Chennai has a different feeling, but the Dhoni wave is different. So, a lot will depend on Ruturaj’s body language.

Also read: I definitely think CSK captaincy was not a surprise for Ruturaj Gaikwad: Ravichandran Ashwin