New Delhi, Sep 23 (UNI) MS Dhoni batting at No 7 against Rajasthan Royals in Tuesday's match in the IPL at Sharjah was an 'absolute miscalculation' according to former India opener batsman Gautam Gambhir.
The Rajasthan Royals beat CSK by 16 runs in their opening match.
In a sharp criticism of the Chennai Super Kings captain on ESPNcricinfo's T20 Time Out, Gambhir said Dhoni ought to have led from the front, and that no other captain whose primary skill was with the bat would have got away with batting as low in a chase of 217.
"I was a bit surprised to be honest," Gambhir said. "MS Dhoni batting at No 7? And sending [Ruturaj] Gaikwad before him, Sam Curran before him. Makes no sense to me. In fact you should be leading from the front. And this is not what you call leading from the front. Batting at No 7 when you're chasing what... 213 [217]? The game was over. Faf was probably the lone warrior.
"Yes, you can talk about MS Dhoni's last over [when he hit three sixes], but it was of no use to be honest. It was just all personal runs," Gambhir said.
"See, if someone else would have done this, some other [batsman] captain had batted No. 7, he would have got a lot of flak. It is MS Dhoni - probably why people don't talk about it," Gambhir said.
"When you don't have Suresh Raina, you're making people believe that Sam Curran is better than you. You're making people believe that Ruturaj Gaikwad, Curran, Kedar Jadhav, Faf du Plessis, M Vijay, all these guys, are better than you."
UNI NC 1615