Midway through the ongoing Indian Premier League (IPL) 2022 season, Chennai Super Kings (CSK) decided to change their captain and bring MS Dhoni back to the helm. This decision was mind keeping in mind that CSK have won just three games out of nine and needs to win the remaining five in order to qualify for the playoffs.
Chennai will also have to keep the Net Run Rate (NRR) in check as theirs is in the negative -0.407. All the odds are against MS Dhoni's side but former India cricketer Virender Sehwag believes that Dhoni can lead CSK to the playoffs given his track record as a captain. The former opening legend also pointed out how MS Dhoni changed the face of the Indian cricket team, recalling one of India's historic wins in Australia way back in 2008. India had lost the Test series but made comeback in the ODI tri-series against hosts Australia and Sri Lanka. India reached the final and thrashed Australia 2-0 in the best of three to win the 2008 Commonwealth series.
Speaking on Cricbuzz, Sehwag said, "I have been with that man since 2005 and I have seen Indian cricket change under him. We used to lose the games we had under control and under his captaincy, we won games in which we were on the brink of losing. We had never thought that we'll travel to Australia and beat them 2-0 in two finals of the triangular tournament [Commonwealth Bank Series] and we won that in 2008. Especially, after we were beaten in the Test series."
"After that, we won several ICC knockouts, home series under him, the ones which we used to lose before but they turned into victories. So keeping that in mind, I am saying that it can happen [CSK winning 6 games in a row]," Sehwag added.
CSK are currently ninth on the points table, just above Mumbai Indians (MI). In order to qualify for the final four, they need to win six games on the trot with a good NRR so that they can finish with 16 points at the end of the league stage.
They will also expect one of the top four teams to lose their matches with the worst possible margin so that their NRR will go in negative. However, all these things are very unlikely as all the top four teams - Gujarat Titans (GT), Rajasthan Royals (RR), SRH and Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) are playing exceptionally well. It will be interesting to see if Dhoni can change CSK's fortune with all these permutations in mind.
