support@headlinenews360.com
Last Updated:
Dhoni has become the prime target of online trolling owing to Chennai Super Kings’ continual failure in IPL 2025.
Dhoni has been mercilessly trolling owing to poor show by Chennai Super Kings in IPL 2025. (PTI/AFP)
Chennai Super Kings, one of the most successful franchises of Indian Premier league, have had a quiet season this year. After having played five games in the IPL 2025 thus far, the Ruturaj Gaikwad-led team has only managed to secure victory once that came against the Mumbai Indians in their IPL opener. Since then, the Men in Yellow have had very little going their way, suffering four consecutive losses in a row, putting them on the bottom of the points table. While that could be a discouraging situation for any team, let alone the five-time champions of an immensely popular league, it is the former CSK captain MS Dhoni who has been, for the most part, blamed (read: trolled) for CSK’s losses. Buy why?
CSK – Chase Nightmare
Chennai Super Kings have found themselves chasing the target in their five out of five outings. In four of them, CSK have failed to cross the victory line. The top-order batters including Rachin Ravindra, Rahul Tripathi, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Shivam Dube have performed below expectations. Despite repeated rotations in their line-up, CSK are yet to find the magic combination that works for them, thereby burdening the lower-order batters to bring glory.
PBKS vs CSK
In their latest encounter against Punjab Kings, Chennai Super Kings once again fell short of the winning score. Chasing a steep target of 220 runs set by PBKS on the back of a stunning maiden ton registered by Priyansh Arya, CSK could muster 201 in response. This time, however, Dhoni walked out much earlier, at no.5 spot. Dhoni smacked 27 off 12 deliveries at a strike rate of 225.
Also Read: Digvesh Rathi: The Ultimate ‘Kaleshi’ Of IPL 2025 Whose Notebook Celebration Needs To Be Studied
Dhoni – Best Finisher Burden
Despite Dhoni’s best attempts and promoting himself up the order, the 43-year-old veteran had just 4.1 overs left in the match against PBKS when he came out to bat. The ask was 69 runs.
Facing Lockie Ferguson in the 18th over, Dhoni smashed the PBKS pacer for two back-to-back maximums to bring the crowd alive. One of the sixes, however, reminded everyone of a similar clash between the two cricketers when Dhoni faced Ferguson in India’s run chase in the 2019 World Cup semi-finals, where the Men in Blue were handed a heartbreaking defeat by New Zealand. On that occasion though, Dhoni had left the ball away which was delivered in the same slot by Ferguson, that surprised everyone, including the Kiwi pacer.
Also Read: Why Are Dhoni And CSK Being Thrashed By Their Own Fans After IPL Match Against RCB?
Dhoni – An Easy Target?
Puzzled? So are we. The trolls can’t seem to leave Dhoni alone. The cricket great gets battered online despite showing clear intent (against PBKS) and contributing for Chennai Super Kings with the bat in the form of fun cameos. His failure to chase down New Zealand’s target in the 2019 World Cup is brought up when he performs for CSK with the bat – suggesting that CSK is more dear to him than the national side. And when he struggles to get going for CSK, the highlights of 2019 World Cup are once again dug up to question his “best finisher” tag. The man can’t catch a break.
At the time of writing this, Dhoni has scored 103 runs in five innings in the ongoing season of IPL – at a batting average of 51.50 and strike rate of over 153.73. It’s worth reminding that the CSK veteran has come out to bat at different positions, raising further eyebrows.
Dhoni Finds Support
Despite the heavy trolling Dhoni has suffered during CSK’s defeats, the wicketkeeper-batter has found the much-needed support in the face of adversity. Fans who are backing Dhoni have wondered why the top-order batters weren’t held accountable for their poor show so far in IPL 2025. CSK’s sloppy fielding has also been questioned by many.
“enough jokes and all we made about dhoni retirement or uncapped player etc. but the fact of the matter is as long as the franchises are okay with senior players being part of the team and players are fit enough to play, nobody should be questioning them. this isn’t a national team. it’s entertainment. and the amount of ad money someone like dhoni pulls single handedly, i doubt if even the whole of pbks can do that. plus he is playing well for his role. so its like a no brainer for csk to keep him. there is money and there is a finisher who even at his 50% is better than most others that they would have to prep in case he chooses to hang his boots. more fun cameos by him we need. what csk needs to fix is everything but dhoni (sic),” an ‘X’ user, who goes by the handle @vishaldayama, wrote.
“This is Dhoni’s limit at this age. You can’t expect anything more from him at this stage of his career. Fans should lower their expectations and his teammates need to contribute more. He can win you games from 40 needed of 18 balls, but not 60 off 18 balls. The responsibility of getting to the stage of 40 off 18 remains with the top 4-5 batters,” another user added.
