Former India opener and current Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) mentor Gautam Gambhir has praised Chennai Super Kings’ (CSK) strategic brilliance to bring the best out of MS Dhoni in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024 season.

Gambhir highlighted that assigning Dhoni the finisher's role with just 8-10 balls remaining in the innings has benefitted CSK immensely, with the wicketkeeper-batter unleashing his repertoire of strokes.

"It is a strategy of CSK (Dhoni facing just 8-10 balls) and that has given Dhoni the freedom. Different teams have different strategies and CSK has done this for the past 2-3 years. The freedom has allowed Dhoni to have an impact. When you play 20-25 balls you have that responsibility to consolidate, but when it's just 8-10 balls you can go out there and express yourself with freedom," Gambhir said in an interaction with Sportskeeda.

Talking more about his former IPL rival, Gambhir also pointed out the leadership similarities between Dhoni and himself.

"I feel insecurity is the biggest reason for a player's failure. It's not about ability. If you don't have the ability you won't reach the first-class, IPL, or international level in the first place. So it is important to have a secure dressing room. A secure dressing room is a happy dressing room and it eventually becomes a winning dressing room," he remarked.

On the eve of the IPL 2024 opener, MS Dhoni stepped down as CSK captain and handed over the leadership baton to Ruturaj Gaikwad.

After quitting the captaincy, Dhoni seems to have taken his batting a notch higher. In eight innings this season, the 41-year-old has amassed 110 runs at a strike rate of 229.16, including 10 boundaries and 9 sixes. He is just three sixes away from completing 250 sixes in the IPL.

On Wednesday (May 1), Dhoni scored 14 off 11 balls against PBKS before getting run out in the final over of CSK’s innings, his first dismissal in the ongoing IPL season.