Chennai Super Kings (CSK) youngster, Prashant Solanki, has commented about skipper MS Dhoni's role during one of the games in the recently concluded tournament, where he grabbed a couple of wickets against Rajasthan Royals (RR).
In IPL 2022, CSK won just four of their 14 games, finishing with the same number of points (8) as the bottom-placed Mumbai Indians (MI) but with a slightly superior net run-rate. The captaincy of the Chennai franchise was also a source of contention. CSK had a poor outing in the league, finishing ninth in the tournament.
Dhoni handed up the captaincy of CSK to Ravindra Jadeja just before the start of the competition. However, because of CSK's dismal performance in IPL 2022, Jadeja returned the captaincy to Dhoni in the middle of the season. The merry-go-round didn't assist the team, but with Dhoni back at the helm, the team's fortunes improved at one point in time.
That was only for a short time, as even Dhoni's Midas touch couldn't help CSK make the playoffs. With CSK's chances of making the playoffs all but nil, the squad opted to experiment with some fresh players. Prashant, a leg-spinner, was one of them. In CSK's penultimate match of the season, the 22-year-old made his IPL debut.
MSD played a key role in the two wickets he took against RR, according to the CSK youngster.
"In the second game, I came in to bowl a bit late because we didn't have a big total and he was shuffling the bowlers around. I was hit for a six off my first ball. Then he (Dhoni) indicated that I have to pull my length back and keep it a little shorter. Let him play strokes on the bigger end. Then I was successful," Solanki said while speaking to Sportskeeda.
"He (Hetmyer) hit me for a boundary and then Mahi bhai indicated to me once again to use the bigger side of the ground. I bowled the top spinner on his legs and he miscued it and was out on deep mid-wicket,” he added.
Dhoni, who has led the Super Kings to four IPL titles, gave a major update on his IPL future. Dhoni was asked about his future plans before the toss in the match against RR. The former Indian cricket skipper stated that he will strive hard to return next season in his unique flair.