‘Too much pressure on…’: MS Dhoni’s verdict puts Ashwin’s CSK spot in doubt

MS Dhoni's Chennai Super Kings shuffled their team for Monday's match against Lucknow Super Giants, with veteran spinner R Ashwin and opening batsman Devon Conway making way for new faces. During his interaction before and after the match, Dhoni confirmed that it was a conscious decision to drop Ashwin and go for a pace-heavy attack because of the dew factor in Lucknow.

“We want to bowl first, there's chances of dew here. The wicket gets better in the second innings. We’ve made a couple of changes — Overton and Rasheed come in for Ashwin and Conway. It’s important to have the right mindset, play with intent.” Dhoni said at the toss.

End of the road for Ashwin?

After the match, Dhoni stated that the CSK bowling attack looked better without Ashwin in it. He said, “We were putting too much pressure on Ash. He was bowling two overs in the first six. We made changes and this looks like a better attack,”

In the 6 matches played this season, the veteran spinner has not been at his best, taking just 5 wickets at an economy rate of 9.90 an over.

CSK thrash LSG at home:

Meanwhile, Dhoni rolled back the time on Monday as he won the first player of the match for the first time since 2019. The wicket-keeper batter came in to bat in the 15th over and scored 26 runs off just 11 balls with four boundaries and a six.

Apart from Dhoni, Shivam Dube struggled at the start of his innings but later went on to play a steady 43 run innings of 37 balls to help the visitors go past the victory line.

Notably, this is only the second win for CSK in 7 matches and continues to be placed on the last spot with a negative net run rate of -1.276.