Former Indian skipper MS Dhoni recently guided Chennai Super Kings (CSK) to their third title of the Indian Premier League (IPL)this year. He revealed that he was looking forward to batting up the order as batting down the order it was getting difficult for him. Despite being in the latter half of the 30s, Dhoni said he had to work more on his fitness to in order to bat up the order in the IPL to give himself more time to win matches.
During the sidelines of the Star Reimagine Awards, Mahi said, “Fitness part started a few years back, when I left Test cricket when it comes to this IPL (consciousness about fitness) started the day we sat to make our team. I was sure in my mind that I wanted to bat up the order, because with age, me batting down the order was like quicksand. I wanted to make it sure that I wanted to take the responsibility of winning the game, but I was coming so down the order, that I was not giving time to myself.”
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Talking about the team’s batting strength, the former India skipper said, “So I said I want to make a team where we bat deep, that gives me a chance to bat up the order, and to me up the order doesn’t mean I want to bat at 3, 4 or 5, it’s the number of overs. Yes when (Ambati) started to bat at 4, I have to give him that berth because he was almost the leading scorer for us. So if he has to come down and bat for the requirement of the team, then he needs to bat at number 4 because he was ideally suited for that position.”
MS also explained how batting in the batting in the middle order helped him to be more aggressive. He said, “So I said I want to bat up, so when I go into bat I would like to be aggressive so that even if I get out, it gives others a chance to reinvent themselves about finishing the game. Fortunately, we did not use our batting order to the full extent in the whole of IPL because of which Watson, Rayadu, Raina, me, Bravo, we all kept scoring runs and that really helped us.”
Dhoni also revealed that since the start of the tournament, he planned in such a way that the team should bat deep and that that has given him the opportunity to go out there and express himself.
