On His Retirement Day, MS Dhoni Said I Should Focus More On Batting - Deepak Chahar

Chennai Super Kings (CSK) and Indian bowler Deepak Chahar revealed that former legendary skipper, MS Dhoni, asked him to focus a bit more on his batting as well and try to justify the talents he has with the bat in hand.

Chahar was re-bought by CSK for INR 14 crores, the most they spent on a player in the IPL 2022 mega auction. Not only can he deliver wickets in the powerplay, but Chahar has also shown his batting prowess and can be quite a boundary hitter. However, with all his capability, Chahar hasn’t justified it yet, Dhoni said after announcing retirement from international cricket.

“One day Mahi Bhai said to me… ‘you have done a good job with the bowling but haven’t justified your batting. I think you should do that’. He told me the day he announced his retirement. We were sitting in the evening and talking. Dhoni said I should focus more on batting.”

“I have been batting since I was young and this pursuit of being an all-rounder had started back then itself. In 2017-18, I used to bat better because I was at home and so I used to practice batting a lot.

“In fact, I used to focus more on batting than bowling because there was a limit on the number of balls you would bowl in one day because doing more would take a toll on your body,” Chahar told SportsYaari on their YouTube channel.

Lack of batting practice hurt his fluency, says Deepak Chahar

On why he ended up focusing more on his bowling despite being a better batter in his early days, Chahar revealed that lack of game time with the bat in hand forced him to switch his focus. As a result, he became the genuine swing bowler he is today.

“When I went to Pune (Rising Pune Supergiants), I reckon my batting was better than my bowling. But after that, when I started playing more, especially overseas, I didn’t get many chances to perform with the bat.

“The amount of practice would come down. Whenever I played First-Class, the main batters would get more time. Because of this, the fluency in my batting got affected,” Chahar added.

Chahar rose to fame with the bat when he scored an 82-ball 69 in an ODI against Sri Lanka last year when India was in a losing position.

“When I scored that half-century against Sri Lanka, I started off very slowly. In the first 25-30 balls, I didn’t even play shots because I wasn’t confident myself of them coming off.

“Before that, for the previous 5-6 months, I hadn’t batted. But when you play regularly and do well in matches, the rhythm starts returning,” he concluded.

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