It’s impossible for MS Dhoni to perform if he plays only the IPL every year: Kapil Dev

Former Indian cricketer Kapil Dev reckons that MS Dhoni wound find it ‘impossible’ to perform if the latter plays only the Indian Premier League (IPL) every year. In the 2020 edition of the T20 league, the 39-year-old Dhoni made his return to competitive cricket after a gap of 14 months. The veteran went on a sabbatical after playing in the 2019 World Cup semi-final against New Zealand in Manchester.

In the IPL, Dhoni flattered to deceive, both as a batsman and skipper. Though the Super Kings won their last three games in the league stage, they had already become the first team to be shown the door of elimination. As per Kapil, who’s also the 1983 World Cup-winning skipper, the Jharkhand-born Dhoni needs to go back to competitive cricket in order to get his form back.

MS Dhoni should go back to first-class cricket, says Kapil

“If Dhoni decides on playing only IPL every year, then it’s impossible for him to perform. It’s not a good thing to talk about age but at his age (39 years), the more he plays, the more his body will be tuned,” Kapil was quoted as saying in ABP News.

“If you don’t play any cricket for 10 months a year and suddenly play IPL, you can see what happened. You can always have a season up or down if you have played so much cricket. It has happened to someone like Chris Gayle also,” he stated.

“He should go back to first-class cricket (domestic List A and T20) and play there. If someone has achieved so much, the dip in form does affect and it becomes a challenge. Let’s see how he comes out of it,” Kapil added.

Earlier, Dhoni confirmed that he would be returning for the 2021 edition of the IPL. He put forth his thoughts to commentator Danny Morrison before CSK’s final league match against the Kings XI Punjab (KXIP) at the Sheikh Zayed Stadium in Abu Dhabi.

In the meantime, former England cricketer Michael Vaughan said that Dhoni should return for the 2022 edition as well. The Englishman feels that Dhoni deserves to bow out after playing in front of his home crowd.