‘It shouldn’t reach a stage where Dhoni gets banned’: Sehwag’s ‘without captain’ warning for CSK after RCB match

The bowling department has let Chennai Super Kings down in IPL 2023. Despite putting up towering scores while batting first, their bowlers haven’t quite been able to choke the opposition batters.

CSK had to battle till the last over to win the match by 8 runs after putting 227 on the board against Royal Challengers Bangalore on Monday. Injuries to key bowlers like Deepak Chahar, Mukesh Choudhary, Sisanda Magala, Ben Stokes and Simarjeet Singh have left their seam attack thin but the biggest concern has been discipline and accuracy.

CSK bowlers have been guilty of bowling multiple wides and no-balls in this IPL. Even against RCB on Monday, they bowled six wides. Such has been the issue of extras with the CSK bowlers that captain MS Dhoni, who is known to be one of the calmest cricketers going around, was forced to issue a warning. “They’ll have to bowl no no-balls and fewer wides. We are bowling too many extra deliveries and need to cut them out otherwise they’ll be playing under a new captain,” Dhoni had said after beating LSG earlier this month.

CSK had bowled 13 wides in that much. While the number has come down, it is yet to reach a manageable point. Former India opener Virender Sehwag said if this continues like this then the day is not far when Dhoni, the CSK captain, will face a suspension due to repeated slow over-rate offences.

“Dhoni was not looking happy because he has mentioned it before that he wants the bowlers to reduce the number of no-balls and wides. CSK had bowled two-three years of extra and against RCB, they bowled another extra over. It shouldn’t go to a stage where Dhoni gets banned and CSK has to take the field without their captain.

With the kind of knee injury he has, it appears he might play only a handful of matches more anyway. He is constantly pushing himself but if his bowlers are bowling so many wides and no-balls, then Dhoni will have to take rest,” Sehwag said on Cricbuzz.

Tushar Deshpande, who has been given away the most extras for CSK in this year’s IPL, once again bowled three wides against RCB but Sehwag was more miffed with spinner Maheesh Theekshana. “It is especially disheartening to see the spinners bowl wides. These are things under your control,” he said.

Terming CSK’s bowling attack ‘weak’, Sehwag said if the four-time champions are unable to sort this out quickly then it will make their life difficult going ahead in the tournament.

“I’m saying from day 1 that CSK’s bowling is weak. They need to work on that department. But what more can they do? They will have to use whatever resources they have this season. The bowlers have to be more accurate. If look at their performance against RCB, they have bowled 30-35 dot balls so they didn’t let RCB score a run in six overs. Despite that, they ended up conceding 218 because they leaked far too many sixes and fours,” he said.