All the teams in T20Is and franchises in different leagues have adopted a new aggressive style of batting. The franchises, barring Chennai Super Kings, are going all out against the bowlers. Punjab Kings kept losing wickets against CSK but Priyansh Arya continued to attack from one end and scored one of the fastest hundred in the history of the tournament. His knock allowed Shashank Singh and Marco Jansen to capitalize in the death overs to take the score above the 200-run mark.
It was enough as Punjab registered a win over Chennai. The five-time champions don’t have a batter in the current squad who can play impactful knocks. Shivam Dube bats aggressively, but even he lacks the potential to take the strike rate to 250 or 300. Rachin Ravindra and Devon Conway, the two openers, are not big hitters and the management failed to address this issue in the mega auction, thinking that their outdated approach would still work in the shortest format.
After the team’s 8-wicket defeat against Kolkata Knight Riders, their new captain, MS Dhoni, exposed his own franchise. Chennai posted 103/9 in 20 overs, and Kolkata completed the chase in 10.1 overs.
“We failed to deal with the challenge and didn’t put enough runs on the board. The ball was stopping a bit, and we didn’t stitch any meaningful partnership. We should play accoording to our strengths without thinking too much about the rivals,” Dhoni said.
He also highlighted the biggest weakness of the team. “We shouldn’t get desperate. We can’t score 60 runs in 6 overs, and even if we get to 45, the batters can capitalize on it in the later stages of the match. Our batters are not big hitters, and they play cricketing shots,” he added.
Chennai have been beaten in five consecutive matches and are ninth in the points table.
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