Irfan Pathan reckons MS Dhoni is struggling to pick the leg spinner’s googly

The former Indian all-rounder Irfan Pathan reckons MS Dhoni is struggling to pick the googly out of the leg spinner’s hand and that is the reason why he is repeatedly getting out to those sort of deliveries.

Yesterday in the game against Punjab Kings, MS Dhoni was dismissed by the young leggie Ravi Bishnoi and almost in the similar fashion as he was dismissed against the KKR wrist-spinner Varun Chakravarthy.

MS Dhoni has misjudged the googly twice this season

MS Dhoni, who generally hangs back and doesn’t really look to get his front foot to the pitch of the ball, has misjudged the googly twice this season and has played those deliveries thinking they might spin away from him, but they actually came in, and he got an inside edge onto the stumps.

According to Irfan, getting out against the fast bowlers is ok, but against the leggie, it’s more about picking the googly out of the hand than anything else, and it’s because he is not picking it out of the hand, he is getting dismissed.

Dhoni has struggled with the bat in the last two games this IPL and his team has lost both, however, CSK had such a good start to their campaign that they had made it to the playoff well in advance with three games in hand. Not only are CSK in the playoffs, they are likely to finish in the top 2 as well if RCB doesn’t beat Delhi Capitals by 163 runs, which doesn’t seem like a real possibility.

“It is very disappointing to see him bat like that. It is understandable if you get out against the fast bowlers, but Dhoni is not able to read the googly. It has happened repeatedly. It is not that it has happened for the first time. He got out to the googly against Varun Chakravarthy as well,” Irfan said while analysing the game on Star Sports.

From CSK’s point of view, they will want Dhoni to come good in the playoffs because if he plays a couple of good innings in the playoffs, that will go a long way in helping CSK get close to the title.