What has Dhoni got to lose

Well news has its say this time that the Chennai Super Kings will have to be prepared for losing players like Jacob Oram and Andrew Flintoff to injuries best known to the players mentioned. This makes Dhoni saying that he has faith in the local players who have done justice to their role if Dhoni's words are to be believed. Added to this, Dhoni also seems to be happy with the current rule of the IPL that doesn't allow more than 4 players from outside India making it to the playing eleven, for which so far no one has expressed their happiness.

However, the news also says that Muralitharan and Makhaya Ntini are not at their bowling best like they used to be a couple of years ago, which is not completely true if their caliber is considered. It is only because the aforementioned players have not been seen playing international cricket since past 6 months or so that such a bad and wrong conclusion is drawn. Muralitharan was last seen playing in the third test against India in November 2009 at Mumbai. And Ntini was last seen playing in the 2^nd test against England at Durban. And both Ntini and Muralitharan could not see their team through in the last test they played, with both SL and RSA suffering an innings defeat.

Dhoni cites the examples of fellow players like Suresh Raina, Murali Vijay and Badrinath who have made it to the Indian squad without going into the details of the same. It need not be specially cited regarding Raina making it to the Indian squad regularly since the 2007 T20 world cup. And Murali Vijay & Badrinath were included in the squad only on a trial basis and have not made a regular position for themselves in international cricket. Nevermind that Gony, Balaji and Tyagi have been decent for CSKs. But, given a chance will Dhoni opt for Badrinath over Flintoff and Tyagi over Oram?

If Dhoni has problems regarding the form of Ntini and Muralitharan as mentioned above, in what way does he guarantee the South African hard hitting all rounder- Justin Kemp who was last seen playing in the rebel league almost one and a half years back when he says that "batting has been the strength of the CSKs"? The only noted batsmen that can be found from the CSKs squad would be Mike Hussey - who has his international series against NZ, Mathew Hayden, Suresh Raina and Dhoni himself. So, if one goes according to Dhoni, 3 has to be more than 6 when he says 3 batsmen can overdo the job done by 6 bowlers.

And, the reason for Dhoni going along with the IPL rules is for the fact that at any cost, Dhoni will be there in the team owing to his captaincy which can guarantee him a place in the side. And, it doesn't matter for Dhoni regarding the number of foreign players that a team can play.