MS Dhoni shouldn’t be batting lower than No.5: Ajit Agarkar

As the 13th edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL 2020) is heading towards its business end, the three-time champions Chennai Super Kings (CSK) is sitting on the edge of elimination with their playoff chances hanging by a thread. Though mathematically, the franchise still have a chance of making it to the top 4, it is practically impossible as they have failed to find the winning rhythm and are languishing at the bottom of the points tally with just 3 wins thus far in 10 fixtures.

The major contributor to the Yellow Army’s failure is their batting line-up. The batters have constantly failed in giving support to their bowling unit and have looked terrible throughout the season. The captain MS Dhoni’s form with the willow has been a big disappointment this year as despite trying hard, he has not been able to perform. As a result, the batting order of the team is not fixed as Dhoni keeps changing his position. He has mostly batted at number 5 or in the lower-middle order for the three-time champions.

Ajit Agarkar has an advice for MS Dhoni

Looking at CSK’s bad run, the former Indian all-rounder Ajit Agarkar came up with an advice for the captain Dhoni. He feels that MS Dhoni shouldn’t demote himself before number 5 in the batting order as he is capable of anchoring the innings for his team and regain his form as the tournament progresses.

“In my opinion, MS Dhoni shouldn’t be batting lower than No.5. It will obviously depend on what the situation is, but the lowest he should go is No.5,” Agarkar said on Star Sports.

“He is arguably one of the greatest cricketing brains to ever play the game. He can see things and assess situations which other players can’t and you can see, as the tournament progress, his form is getting better as well. So, he shouldn’t be batting lower than No.5 for me,” Agarkar explained.

Thus far, MS Dhoni has managed to score only 184 runs in 10 games, averaging just over 27. If CSK wants to capitalize on the outside chance of making it to the playoffs, it has to win all the four remaining games.