The Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025 is well and truly underway. However, the biggest debate has been around MS Dhoni‘s batting position for the Chennai Super Kings. There was a lot of backlash on social media after the former India captain batted at No.9 against Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB). The five-time champions course corrected against Rajasthan Royals as the wicketkeeper-batted walked out at No.7. Amid the ongoing chatter, Robin Uthappa has weighed in on the issue, saying he doesn’t understand the logic of Dhoni coming so lower down the order.
Against Rajasthan Royals, Dhoni made his way to the middle at No.7 as the game hung in the balance. The 43-year-old scored 16 runs off 11 balls, but CSK fell six runs short in the end.
Regarding the game against RCB, Dhoni might have scored 30 runs off 16 balls, but by the time he got to the crease, the game’s result was a foregone conclusion. CSK ended up losing against RCB by 50 runs.
Uthappa has now said that he doesn’t understand what Dhoni was thinking when he came to bat at No.9 against RCB, especially when there was a chance of him possibly doing some damage had he come earlier.
“Frustrated. F*****g frustrated. What the f**k is going on, dude! He might as well have (batted even lower than No. 9). It wouldn’t have made a difference. I would say ‘befuddlement’ is too weak a term. What the heck! Like what is the thinking? Because you know you won’t win the game by the time he’s coming to bat. By the time (Ravichandran) Ashwin’s coming to bat, you know you have less than a slim chance of winning the game,” Uthappa said on The KimAppa show with cricket analyst Jarrod Kimber.
“The only thing you can give yourself the best chance to do is reduce that net run rate. The margins in the IPL are so slim at the back end that you want to keep your net run rate as much in the positive as possible, right?” he added.
‘Confuses me’
The Ruturaj Gaikwad-led side has suffered back-to-back defeats against RCB and Rajasthan Royals, putting the franchise in seventh place.
Uthappa said Dhoni should have come higher up the batting order against RCB especially when the asking rate had increased substantially.
“What confuses me is that the asking rate was so high in the 13th and 14th over (in the game vs RCB). I was like, there’s no way MS is going to come below number eight cause at number eight, you still felt like I want the other guys to take the chunk of the workload, so if push comes to shove, I’m going to be there,” said Uthappa.
“Here push came to shove and then went some more as well, and still he had turned up, and then you’re wondering what’s the thinking behind this because it doesn’t augur well for CSK,” he added.
Earlier, CSK head coach Stephen Fleming explained Dhoni batting lower, saying he cannot bat for longer durations because his knees are not what they used to be earlier.
