In IPL 2023, Chennai Super Kings‘ bowling performance was subpar. Their bowlers have not quite been able to choke the opposing batters, despite their towering scores when batting first. After putting 227 runs on the board in their match against Royal Challengers Bangalore on Monday, CSK had to fight until the very last over to win the match by 8 runs.

Their seam attack has been weakened by injuries to key bowlers like Deepak Chahar, Mukesh Choudhary, Sisanda Magala, Ben Stokes, and Simarjeet Singh, but discipline and accuracy have been the primary concerns.

In this IPL, CSK bowlers have bowled multiple wides and no-balls

They bowled six wides on Monday, even against RCB. Captain MS Dhoni, who is known to be one of the calmest cricketers in the game, was forced to issue a warning due to the extras issue with the CSK bowlers.

“They’ll have to bowl no no-balls and fewer wides. We are bowling too many extra deliveries and need to cut them out otherwise they’ll be playing under a new captain,”

Dhoni had said after beating LSG earlier this month.

In that time, CSK had bowled 13 wides. The number has decreased, but it has not yet reached a level that is manageable. Virender Sehwag, a former India opener, stated that Dhoni, the captain of CSK, will soon face a suspension for his numerous slow over-rate offenses if this trend continues.

“Dhoni was not looking happy because he has mentioned before that he wants the bowlers to reduce the number of no-balls and wides. CSK had bowled two-three years of extra and against RCB, they bowled another extra over. It shouldn’t go to a stage where Dhoni gets banned and CSK has to take the field without their captain. With the kind of knee injury he has, it appears he might play only a handful of matches more anyway. He is constantly pushing himself but if his bowlers are bowling so many wides and no-balls, then Dhoni will have to take rest,”

Sehwag said on Cricbuzz.

Yet again Tushar Deshpande, who has been offered the most additional items for CSK in the current year’s IPL, bowled three wides against RCB however Sehwag was more annoyed with spinner Maheesh Theekshana.

“It is especially disheartening to see the spinners bowl wides. These are things under your control,”

he said.

Sehwag described CSK’s bowling attack as “weak” and stated that the four-time champions’ continued participation in the tournament would be difficult if they were unable to resolve the issue quickly.

“I’ve been saying from day 1 that CSK’s bowling is weak. They need to work in that department. But what more can they do? They will have to use whatever resources they have this season. The bowlers have to be more accurate. If you look at their performance against RCB, they bowled 30-35 dot balls so they didn’t let RCB score a run in six overs. Despite that, they ended up conceding 218 because they leaked far too many sixes and fours,”

he added.