What He Said Was Completely Misunderstood By The Press - Narayan Jagadeesan On MS Dhoni's Comment Of Youngsters Lacking 'Spark' From Last Season

Young Chennai Super Kings keeper-batsman Narayan Jagadeesan clarifies MS Dhoni‘s comment from last IPL season in the UAE where the skipper expressed his disappointment with the youngsters in the side.

MS Dhoni had said that the youngsters lacked ‘spark’ as CSK slumped to their worst IPL season ever. Notably, Ruturaj Gaikwad and Narayan Jagadeesan himself were the two young batsmen who were given opportunities.

Gaikwad started off with three consecutive single-digit scores, before eventually hitting three consecutive fifties towards the end of the season. Narayan Jagadeesan played in 5 games, but got to bat in just 2 – as Gaikwad’s steered CSK to victories in the rest three games.

After one of the losses, in a season where CSK couldn’t qualify for the playoffs for the first time, MS Dhoni had said: “There were few chances given to the youngsters. Maybe we didn’t see the kind of spark that they could’ve given us to say, okay you know, push the experienced guys and make space for them.”

What people don’t get is that he’s someone who’s trying to boost the entire team: Narayan Jagadeesan

This created wrong noises in the media about Dhoni’s handling of youngsters and reprimanding them in the open public for failures. However, Narayan Jagadeesan, an established batsman in the Tamil Nadu domestic side, explains that the skipper’s comments were “completely misunderstood” by the media.

He says that it was more of a motivation to them, to boost their performances – and for the seniors as well. The 25-year-old asserts that the senior players cannot be directly criticized, hence the skipper was merely conveying a message to them.

“What he [Dhoni] actually said was completely misunderstood by the press.It was not about the youngsters, Rutu and I did well, to be honest. What people don’t get is that he’s someone who’s trying to boost the entire team, the seniors as well,” Narayan Jagadeesan told Sportseekda.

When you have such legends in the team, you can’t pinpoint each of them. There needs to be a way where the seniors are backed up. For them to be backed up, something had to be done. And after his comment, we did well and the team did really well,” he elucidated.

Dhoni’s choice of words did a lot of good for the side as they won their last three games of the season. The Yellow Army continued on that form to dominate in the IPL 2021 as well. At the time the tournament was suspended, CSK is placed at the second spot on the points table with 5 wins in 7 games.

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