KUMAR SANGAKKARA SHARES TIPS FOR MS DHONI TO GET BACK IN FORM BEFORE IPL 2021  

Fans have been sad this IPL season as MS Dhoni has not been in the best of form for his Chennai Super Kings (CSK) in IPL 2020. Playing after a long gap of over a year, Dhoni looked less in form for CSK.

His poor form has also affected CSK's chances this season as they missed out on the playoffs for the first time in the history of the competition. However, MS Dhoni and team were ousted from the competition after managing only 4 wins in their first 12 games.

While looking at Dhoni scores so far, he has managed only 199 runs in 12 matches for CSK at an average of 28.42 and a strike rate of 118.45.

Meanwhile, former Sri Lanka captain Kumar Sangakkara hopes that Dhoni will continue leading CSK in the IPL next year too but wants him to play competitive cricket. He also stated that the drop in form doesn't make 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," Sangakkara said on Star Sports ahead of CSK's clash against KKR on Thursday.

"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 added.

Dhoni, who had announced his retirement from international cricket in August, 2020 was last seen for India against New Zealand in the semi-final of the 2019 World Cup.   

"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 noted.

Further in his conversation, Sangakkara asserted that Dhoni will be disappointed with his personal form but he can correct things next year. 

"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," Sangakkara pointed.

"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," he finally added.

However, Dhoni has not yet confirmed his plans for IPL 2021 but CSK CEO Kashi Vishwanathan recently informed that he is confident that Dhoni will lead CSK next year as well.