MS Dhoni is super hungry but CSK captain has to play competitive cricket before next IPL: Kumar Sangakkara

Former Sri Lanka captain and batting great Kumar Sangakkara said he hopes MS Dhoni will return to lead Chennai Super Kings at IPL 2021 but urged the World Cup winner to play competitive cricket in the lead up to the next season to regain form.

MS Dhoni retired from international cricket in August and returned to play IPL 2020 after not having played competitive cricket for more than a year. As expected, Dhoni looked rusty out in the middle. Dhoni himself conceded that he was not finding form at the start of the tournament and the extended quarantine period due to Covid-19 concerns in their camp did not help his cause.

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Dhoni has managed just 199 runs in 12 matches at an average of 28.42, drastically down from last season's average of 83.20 and his IPL career average of 41.34. The lack of competitive action showed in his game as Dhoni was struggling to find consistency and keep the scoreboard moving. Notably, Dhoni is in danger of finishing without a single fifty for the first time in his IPL career as the CSK captain's top score this season so far has been 47 not out.

While Kumar Sangakkara stressed that MS Dhoni needs competitive action under his belt, he also said that one bad season at the back end of his career doesn't make him a lesser player or less important to CSK in the near future.

It remains to be seen what MS Dhoni will decide after IPL 2020 but CSK management are hopeful of their skipper continuing despite the lows of the ongoing season.

'One ordinary season doesn't make MS Dhoni a lesser player'

".... you will always have a season or series where you're off the boil, and this is MS's. It has reflected on the team's fortunes as well. And it's something you get to expect. You can over analyse it, you analyse it any which way, it just happens. And it's happened at the back end of MSD's career.

"But that doesn't make him a lesser player or less important for CSK at all. It's just one of those phases that he has got to deal with and he's got to come out of it," Kumar Sangakkara told Star Sports on Thursday.

"I am sure he is hungry to keep playing, hungry to perform. Knowing MSD, he would much rather take a team win than a half-century for himself. That's the way he has been built, that's the way he has always thought. If he can contribute to it in any way, even by scoring 10 runs he'd be happy.

"He will of course be disappointed with his personal form but with only 2 games to go, I don't think there is any point in trying to salvage that. It's about winning games. He can address it after he goes and comes back next year.

"But what he has to do is to play some more super-competitive cricket in between. You can't have long gaps between your IPL seasons, not playing international cricket or not playing regional or first-class cricket. He has got to be super competitive and play competitive cricket to be in form."

MS Dhoni had not played a lot of domestic cricket after he became an established star in the India dressing room due to his busy schedule. Even when he gave up Test cricket as early as 2014, Dhoni did not play any domestic first-class cricket. Dhoni last turned up for his state side, Jharkhand at the 2017 Vijay Hazare Trophy. It remains to be seen if Dhoni will play in franchise-based overseas leagues but with the next season of IPL likely to be played in 5 month's time, getting competitive action under the belt is not going to be an easy task.