MS Dhoni Slams CSK Batters After Defeat To SRH, Urges Greater Responsibility With Willow

Chennai Super Kings (CSK) captain MS Dhoni did not hesitate to criticise his side's batters, blaming their poor performance for the defeat against Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025 on Friday.

CSK made a couple of changes to the line-up, bringing in Dewald Brevis and Deepak Hooda for the must-win match, while Rachin Ravindra was dropped.

Photo Credit: PTI

However, the alterations did little to change their fortunes, with the team losing Shaik Rasheed off the very first ball of the match.

After the game, Dhoni was forthright in his assessment, highlighting the batters' repeated failure to give the team a strong start this season.

"We kept losing wickets, and in the first innings the wicket was slightly better and 155 is not a justifiable score, because it wasn't turning a lot. Yes, after the 8-10th over, it became slightly two-paced when it comes to the fast bowlers, but nothing that was out of the ordinary, I feel we could have put few more runs on the board. Yes, second innings there was a bit of help, our spinners the quality was there and they bowled in the right areas and it was stopping a bit but we were short by 15-20 runs," he said.

CSK's innings found some stability thanks to debutant Dewald Brevis, who struck a lively 42 off 25 deliveries. Yet, aside from him, none of the other batters managed to provide the momentum the side desperately needed.

"I think he (Brevis) batted really well and we need something like that in the middle order where we have slightly struggled when the spinners come in, that's a time we need to either you do it by batsmanship, where you pick up your areas or try to play the big shot in your area, I feel that's where we have been lacking and not been really able to dominate or get runs against spinners at good pace in the middle," Dhoni said of the South African youngster.

Although CSK's spinners staged a commendable fightback to keep the side in the contest for a significant portion of the match, Dhoni lamented that the batting unit was simply not posting sufficient totals this season.

"In a tournament like this, if you have one or two areas where you can plug in the holes it is good, but if majority of your players are not doing well, it becomes very difficult, because you have to do a few changes, but if majority are doing well then you guy those guys that extra few games and if it doesn't work out than you move onto the next one, but if 4 of them are not performing at the same time, you are bound to make that change, because you can't just keep on going because we are not putting enough runs on the board, because it is essential right now, the game has changed. I am not saying it is always 180-200, but assess the conditions and then look to put the runs on the board," 'Thala' concluded.