Former Kolkata Knight Riders skipper Gautam Gambhir has strongly criticized CSK skipper MS Dhoni's decision to come rather late in the batting order during his team's IPL 2020 clash against Rajasthan Royals which the 3-time champs eventually lost by 16 runs at the Sharjah Cricket Ground on September 22.

Needing a massive 217 runs to win the high scoring contest against Rajasthan Royals, Dhoni came to bat at No.7 in the 14th over when the game was pretty much done and dusted with CSK needing a mammoth 103 off 38 balls.

In the context of the game where Chennai Super Kings needed to press on the acceleration button all through the innings, the highly experienced campaigner Dhoni came out to bat after all rounder Sam Curran, debutant Ruturaj Gaikwad and power hitter Kedar Jadhav.

"I was a bit surprised, to be honest. MS Dhoni batting at number seven? And sending Gaikwad before him, Sam Curran before him. (It) makes no sense to me. In fact, you should be leading from the front. And this is not what you call leading from the front. Batting at number seven when you're chasing what 217? The game was over. Faf was probably the lone warrior," ESPNcricinfo quoted Gambhir as saying.

When Dhoni came out to bat, CSK need over 100 runs in the last six overs and Faf du Plessis on the other end had just started getting into his groove after a rather sluggish start.

Dhoni and du Plessis eventually went on a boundary hitting spree but by then the run rate zoomed to almost 20-per over in the last four overs and CSK were starring at a defeat. Dhoni did bring CSK close by striking 3 consecutive sixes off Tom Curran but it was too late in the day. The experienced campaigner ending his innings on unbeaten 29 from 17 balls.

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"Yes, you can talk about MS Dhoni's last over when he hit three sixes, but it was of no use to be honest. It was just all personal runs. See, if someone else would have done this, some other captain had batted number seven, he would have got a lot of flak," said Gambhir.

"It is MS Dhoni - probably (that's) why people don't talk about it. When you don't have Suresh Raina, you're making people believe that Sam Curran is better than you. You're making people believe that Ruturaj Gaikwad, Curran, Kedar Jadhav, Faf du Plessis, M Vijay, all these guys are better than you," he added.

CSK skipper Dhoni defended his decision to bat down the order, giving his justification that he had not batted in a very long time.

"I haven't batted for a long time; 14-day quarantine doesn't help," the 39-year-old said after the game. "Also wanted to try different things, give opportunities to Sam. Have the opportunity to try different things. If it doesn't work, you can always go back to your strengths. Faf adapted very well. Something the batsmen will do, neglect square leg and go more towards long-on and long-off."