'You don't see him making such mistakes' - Virender Sehwag's critical take on MS Dhoni's captaincy after CSK lose IPL 2023 campaign opener

The Indian Premier League season 16 got off to an incredible start on Friday, March 31 at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad with the opening match between Gujarat Titans and Chennai Super Kings. The defending champions got their campaign off to a great start as they defeated CSK by 5 wickets.

After being put in to bat first, Chennai posted 178/7 in their allotted 20 overs courtesy of a brilliant 92-run knock by Ruturaj Gaikwad. In reply, Chennai failed to contain Gujarat’s batters as they chased down the target in 19.2 overs. Analysing CSK’s bowling performance, former India cricketer Virender Sehwag felt that captain MS Dhoni could’ve used more than five bowling options.

CSK introduced Tushar Deshpande as their 'impact player' who replaced Ambati Rayudu during the second innings. The seamer didn’t have a great day as he gave away 51 runs in 3.2 overs and picked just one wicket. Sehwag said that Dhoni could’ve used off-spinner Moeen Ali instead of giving the ball back to Deshpande and done some damage control.

"Had Dhoni used an over from Moeen Ali somewhere in the middle, he may not have needed to go to Tushar Deshpande, who was highly expensive. You don't see MS Dhoni making such mistakes often, but that's where you could use the risk-and-reward approach of using an off-spinner when right-handers are batting,” said Sehwag on Cricbuzz.

While Deshpande leaked runs, CSK had the 20-year-old seamer Rajvardhan Hangargekar who impressed everyone on his IPL debut. After warming the bench in 2022, Hangargekar finally got his first chance in the T20 extravaganza and ended up picking 3/36 in four overs. He picked up the wickets of Wriddhiman Saha, Sai Sudharsan and Vijay Shankar in his spell and kept CSK in the game all throughout.

Sehwag impressed with Rajvardhan Hangargekar

Talking about Hangargekar’s impressive debut, Sehwag said that the young seamer should focus on picking up wickets and not worry about his economy.

"A new player will always take time to adjust and if I were the captain, I would be pretty happy as I always used to tell my bowler that even if you get hit for 40 runs in four overs, pick up 2-3 wickets and that's exactly what Hangargekar did,” the former India opener added.

CSK spinners did a good job in the middle as Ravindra Jadeja picked up 1/28 in four overs while Mitchell Santner finished his four-over spell on 0/32. However, an expensive spell from Deshpande cost them the game.