This is the only part of the two posts that you've made that I agree with, which is why I'm not heavily critical of this side when I could be. 2019 was already the season where cracks started to appear and the team got by with the brilliance of a few individuals and some brilliant strategizing plus Delhi's complete lack of experience costing them. On the other hand though, I gotta ask if you've watched Chennai actually bat in any of these games though? The lack of intent is very clearly visible which is the main issue for most fans. I don't mind if the team loses even badly, I hate it when they treat the match as an extended net session which is very clearly an instruction from the top as Dhoni's done the same in Indian colours too. The games in which they've lost might appear close on the scorecards but trust me when I say that Chennai was almost never close to clinching a victory in most of them. The games that they've played have simply not been entertaining, I'm just glad that there were no crowds because this side would have definitely been booed at some point in this season with fans present.
I really don't understand your obsession with Raina either, he had a below average IPL last season where he was only the team's fourth highest run-scorer and escaped blame because Rayudu and Jadhav happened to be even worse. Almost every other number three had a significantly better strike-rate than him and averaged mostly better (Ajinkya Rahane out of all people has a much superior strike-rate) and even accounting for Chepauk's pitch doctoring, his performance last season was really poor. Was he better in 2018? I would agree but most of his runs came at a slower than normal rate. The man you accuse of playing a selfish innings far often than not in Kohli was better than him in that season. You ask why people believe Raina would have had a bad season, I ask why you believe he would have played well in the first place after two seasons of underperforming relative to his salary? Some training montage videos on social media? Or generic PR quotes? I shall state my reasons as to why he would have fared poorly this season.
- His last competitive game in any format was a year and a half ago. To put that into perspective, Dhoni's last competitive game prior to this IPL was two months later than his and the latter looks bereft of confidence, rusty and poor himself whenever he has played. And this was a Raina who had a torrid time in SMA Trophy in 2018/19, a below par IPL and absolutely no match practice not even accounting for the extended COVID break. You're believing his Mr. IPL tag too much, he has been nowhere near as good in the last two seasons.
- You're really underselling the importance of mental space in a player's performance. Raina for whatever reason was not mentally 100% before the tournament's start to play. Could be the horrible news about his relatives (the timelines do not really match and there never was a concrete confirmation that it was the real reason) or it could just have been the psychological impact of a closed bubble and a pandemic badly managed in our country but I fully respect his decision to pull out which is why I've never ever mentioned his name as a reason for the team's poor performance. Josip Illicic, one of Atlanta's best players pulled out of his club's biggest match in their history and no one still knows why exactly he did it apart from vague speculation about it being the impact of the pandemic.
- I don't buy that his absence has caused huge issues either, Hyderabad are not completely down and out in the absence of Bhuvi and Marsh are they? Delhi lost Pant for a week, Ishant, Mishra and despite it affecting their balance they're sitting comfortably at the top. I don't want to hear the 'these players are not comparable to Raina' excuse as Bhuvi and Pant are far more important to their respective sides than Raina was to CSK. The only reason people keep harping about Raina's absence is because unlike the other two franchises who ensured that they had other alternatives to step in by blooding them before, Chennai were too stubborn to try such things.
- Harbhajan was nothing more than an extra spinner to be used in Chepauk last season, seven out of his eleven matches that he played were in Chepauk and two of the away games were in the knockout stages. I will agree that he was good last season but most of it was down to him being used exclusively in the spin friendly surface of Chennai, he was expensive in all games he played away. As for him making an impact this season, he would have never been picked and will not be picked up next season either given his dig at Dhoni on twitter with Irfan Pathan. It is very clear that he pulled out for not just personal reasons.
- I'm not even going to address the lack of importance you place on age because tennis and cricket are vastly different sports and so is skydiving or whatever it is that Baumgartner did. Dhoni's issue is not fitness (although it is visibly clear that he is tired more often these days during games), it is the lack of technique he has and the decline of his hand-eye coordination that made up for it in the past. He simply cannot take on spinners or just chooses not to (Styris demonstrated this today in the Dugout very well). The rest of the team is visibly struggling with regards to ground fielding and strike rotation. It is no coincidence that teams can easily run twos against Chennai given how shoddy their fielding is.
- And finally, the team management this season has been bizarre. Karn Sharma gets dropped after two games where Dhoni visibly has arguments with him on the field, Jadhav is dropped after repeated failures because he denies a single to Jadeja (what other reason could there be?) and is then suddenly brought back along with Chawla? What have they suddenly showed in training that has turned them into must picks ahead of players who have barely got a look in this season? Sam Curran was doing a decent job in the middle order and is all of a sudden supposed to be a pinch-hitter because Chennai's batsmen cannot be aggressive? His bowling has got progressively weaker along with Jadeja's and where are the likes of Ngidi and Tahir? The former had one bad game on a tiny ground and all of a sudden he is nowhere to be seen despite being an excellent death bowler for South Africa versus Australia and England and having a decent first game too. Last season's purple cap winner is not experienced enough to merit selection eh? I would have added Hazlewood in there too given how he was unceremoniously dropped after one decent game despite being misused but he did play today.
- The age criticism also should be mentioned again because Chennai splurged nearly 7 crores on Chawla (just because he has experience of bowling on Chepauk pitches?
), refused to release Jadhav despite him looking poor last season, in the World Cup and in SMA Trophy 2019 and did not make a single bid for any of the upcoming talents other than Sai Kishore (which was because he was a local, let's be honest). Hyderabad, Rajasthan and Punjab picked up a raft of young talent this season cheaply for example.
I'm sorry but the rest of your post(s) read like the ones on other social media from a Dhoni fan who thinks the man can do no wrong. Nobody's calling him a bad captain even, all that they've mentioned is that it is maybe time for him to pass on the torch to others as age catches up with us all and he is only human at the end of the day. Expecting him to pull miracles is not fair and if 2008 Dhoni was captaining the 2020 version along with his bunch of mates, he would axe half of the lot starting with himself. I shall always respect Gauti for what he did in 2018, imagine him not resigning the captaincy at that point. Shaw would have never got the chance to seriously push a claim as the opener and Pant plus Iyer would have been carrying the team's workload being drifted all around the lineup. Instead, he resigned when he realised that the team needed fresh blood in the leadership group and that the tournament was done and Delhi have massively benefited from that ever since. Instead, it is commercial interests and player ties that is keeping a complacent playing XI in Chennai still going strong after repeated failures.
) have a spark? I will not accept this ridiculous story of process, the entire story of process has been repeated and the tournament is almost about to get over. What is the point in introducing the youngsters now and checking if they have a spark when Jagadeesan already did that? (Asks Sadagoppan Ramesh if Jagadeesan did not show spark and if Jadhav or Chawla showed any such spark who agrees with him and says that the intent and aggression that the former showed was missing in the latter) Karn Sharma gave away runs but at least took wickets, Chawla just waltzes in and bowls after the match gets over, I will not agree that Jadeja could not be used today (couldn't quite get what he says here). I agree that Dhoni is a great player and that I'm nowhere near him but I don't agree at all with these decisions.
