Despite a winning end to his team's campaign, Chennai Super Kings (CSK) skipper, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, didn't lose sight of the bigger picture and said they need to change their "core group" going into the next season after a disappointing run in UAE.
CSK enjoyed a three-match winning streak at the end, including one over Kings XI Punjab (KXIP) in Abu Dhabi on Sunday (November 1), but that came after the team's playoff chances were well and truly gone with only 3 of their 6 victories coming in the first 11 matches.
The overall performance gave the impression that their strategy of backing experience has run its course and the team needs fresh legs on the park and new ideas.
"We need to slightly change our core group and look for the next 10 years," said Dhoni at the post-match presentation after the win against KXIP, as quoted by PTI.
"At the start of the IPL, we made a team and it served well. There comes a time where you have to shift a bit, hand it over to the next generation."
"We’ll come back stronger, that’s what we are known for."
Whether or not Dhoni himself will be part of the IPL 2021 is a widely speculated topic. Not helped by his kind gesture of handing over jerseys to teammates and opposition players after the matches through the season.
But at the toss on Sunday, Dhoni quashed those rumours when commentator Danny Morrison asked him whether the one versus KXIP is his last game in CSK's yellow.
"Definitely Not!" he said, adding at the presentation, "(The jerseys) maybe they thought I’m retiring."
While definitely at pain over CSK's exit, Dhoni said the last three matches could be a nice "template" for his team to follow next year.
“It was a difficult campaign. We committed a lot of errors. The last four games were a template of where we would like to be."
“I don’t think we played to the full potential. If you are lagging too much, it becomes very difficult to push yourself and come up with performances. Very proud the way they played their cricket. It would have been very tough 6-7 games."
“You won’t want to be in a dressing room that is not really enjoying cricket. You want to keep coming up with different ideas but if the dressing room atmosphere is not happy, it becomes very tough."
“A lot depends on what the BCCI decides upon the auction. This has been a tough year. This is one of the seasons where most of the teams played well.”
On the day, while CSK bowlers restricted a power-packed KXIP line-up to just 153/6, the biggest take away from the win was still Ruturaj Gaikwad, the young opener, who scored 62 not out off 49 balls to see his team through. Even Dhoni, not one to easily gush over someone, was full of praise for the right-hand batsman who will surely serve CSK long.
"Whenever we have seen Rutu bat, he’s somebody who has done well in net sessions. But we were not able to see him in games. Then he got Covid, and even after 20 days he was not fit. He didn’t get time for us to gauge."
"That was one of the main reasons we kept going with Faf and Watson. It didn’t work. But that’s the point where you go with the experienced players."
