Unlike the situation in the year 2022, where Ravindra Jadeja led the Chennai Super Kings to an unforgettable start to the season of the Indian Premier League, losing their first four matches, Ruturaj Gaikwad led the franchise to back-to-back victories both at home at the start of the season 2024. However, after two straight defeats that followed both away from home, the captaincy of Gaikwad came under the scanner as the likes of Matthew Hayden and Irfan Pathan were left quite displeased at a few of his on-field calls in the match against Sunrisers Hyderabad on Friday.
While speaking to Star Sports after the six-wicket defeat of Chennai Super Kings in Hyderabad, Hayden highlighted two major errors committed by Gaikwad, which led to the defeat of the franchise. The Legend of CSK felt that with the team struggling in the powerplay, Moeen Ali could have been injected into the batting lineup in a try to grab momentum, but the all-rounder of England instead did not get his chance with the bat.
Hayden said that there were a number of decisions that were not right. When you think of Moeen Ali, who is an all-rounder for the England cricket team, he should have contributed nicely with both the bat and the ball if he should have been batted up the order. The team was legging inside the powerplay. They were one for 49 in the power play, so according to me, they needed an injection of some hope and courage, and Moeen Ali is someone who could have provided that.”
Hayden also said that Mahesh Theekshana could have been introduced right in the first over against Travis rather than waiting till the 4th over.
Irfan Pathan while backing Hayden said, “The strength of Mukesh and Deepak lies with the new ball, so it is going to be very difficult for Ruturaj as well to get Maheesh in attack, and that temptation would have been there because of Travis head. I also want to say the same thing that you said about getting Theekshana to bowl. This decision may give a little breather to Mukesh. To understand where the pressure is left because Mukesh’s strength lies with the new ball and he has not played first-class cricket for around 15 months, and that is quite a long time.”
In the middle of all the criticism, Hayden has also said that Jaguar might be feeling the pressure of having two succeed Dhoni in the leadership role after back-to-back defeats.
While concluding his statement, he said that he can never think that it is going to be easy with the cloud of Dhoni around you, and this is not because of Dhoni but because of the word “Dhoni.”
