MS Dhoni will lead Chennai Super Kings in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2021 final against Eoin Morgan-led Kolkata Knight Riders on Friday. Both captains have struggled with the bat for the major chunk of the tournament. While Dhoni found form in Qualifier 1 as he smacked Tom Curran for three boundaries in the final over to take CSK into their ninth IPL final, Morgan has been struggling to put bat to ball. If it wasn’t for a Rahul Tripathi six in the final over against Delhi Capitals, Morgan’s lack of runs would’ve cost the two-time IPL champions a place in the final. Ahead of the clash of two World Cup-winning skippers, Gautam Gambhir and Dale Steyn analysed the performances of the duo in this year’s IPL.

Gambhir said when it comes to batting form, MS Dhoni looks in better touch than the England captain.

“Probably he started the tournament batting at number five because he has no form, he keeps pushing himself down. The moment you start pushing yourself down, you start putting extra pressure on yourself. You want other people to finish off the games. And suddenly you find yourself in a position where you’ll have to finish off the games. Especially in the last three or four games, he has not been able to do that,” Gambhir said during an ESPNCricinfo show.

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“You can’t compare form of both captains because MS hasn’t played any international cricket for quite a while Morgan is leading England in international cricket. It is difficult to compare but from the form point of view, Morgan looks in the worst form as compared to what Dhoni is,” the former India batter added.

Former South Africa pacer Dale Steyn lavished praise of Dhoni and Morgan for captaining their respective sides well and understanding the game situation better than others.
“MS and Morgan have done well as being captains. There have been times in the tournament where they’ve relied on these guys to come out and score runs and they haven’t quite stepped up. You would expect somebody like Morgan to step up because he is the current player, he is playing and MS isn’t playing much cricket. However, both of them have found a way to captain their ship and manage their players very well,” Steyn said.