IPL 2020: 3 Records MS Dhoni could break this year
BCCI has officially confirmed that the 13th season of the IPL is taking place from the 19th of September to the 10th of November in UAE. All the teams are set to leave India by next week and start their training in the UAE after a quarantine period. Cricket fans are excited and rightly so as the biggest T20 league in the World is finally taking place.
One of the main reasons behind why people were waiting for the IPL is to see the return of MS Dhoni. The veteran wicket-keeper batsman hasn’t played competitive cricket since the loss in the semi-final in the 2019 World Cup.
He also has said that he considers himself fit to play as long as he beats the fastest sprinter in the team, i.e. as long as he has a good enough Yo-Yo Test Score!
It has been more than a year since we have seen MS Dhoni come out to bat. The former Indian captain was almost ready for the IPL when the pandemic ruined it for him and his fans. All the people who watched him in the CSK nets said that he was hitting the ball sweetly and was hungry to perform in this year’s IPL.
Now that MS Dhoni is going to be back on the cricket field in a month, let’s have a look at 3 records that can be broken by him in this IPL.
#3 Most Dismissals in an IPL season
MS Dhoni has the record for the most number of dismissals overall in the IPL but not for a single IPL season. This record is currently held by Rishabh Pant for Delhi Capitals. In 2019, he had 24 dismissals to his name in 16 games. This time the IPL is being played in the UAE where the conditions will be conducive to the spinners.
We all know how good a keeper Dhoni is when it comes to spin bowling. He has the fastest hands when it comes to stumpings. So looking at the UAE conditions and Dhoni’s fast hands there is a high chance that he might go past Pant’s 24 dismissals in this year’s IPL.
#2 Most Catches in the IPL
Currently, MS Dhoni has 95 catches to his name in the IPL. Suresh Raina with 102 catches and Dinesh Karthik with 101 catches are above him in the list for most catches in the IPL.
If MS Dhoni can go past both of them then he can set two records – Most catches by a wicket-keeper and most catches by a player. Spinners don’t get many caught behinds as compared to pacers but with Dhoni you never know and CSK even have the likes of Chahar and Ngidi to provide you withtypical caught-behind dismissals.
#1 First Wicket-keeper to reach 150 dismissals in IPL
The CSK captain is currently leading the charts for most dismissals in the IPL. He is first on the list with 133 dismissals whereas Dinesh Karthik is just behind him with 131 to his name. MS Dhoni needs 17 more to reach the landmark of 150 dismissals.
As mentioned earlier, the conditions will be conducive to spinners and there is a high chance that he might as well break the record of most dismissals in a season which is 24. So if he breaks that record then he is reaching the 150 mark as well.
Even if he doesn’t break that record, there is a high chance that he will reach the 150 mark because anyways keepers on an average have close to 17 dismissals every year in the IPL.