Former Indian skipper Kris Srikkanth questioned Chennai Super Kings for persisting with Prashant Veer after they suffered a five-wicket loss against Sunrisers Hyderabad at the MA Chidambaram Stadium, Chennai on Monday. 

Veer could only manage 11 runs off nine deliveries against the Orange Army and the left-arm orthodox spinner was not given the ball by Ruturaj Gaikwad.

The UP player has failed to grab his opportunities in the ongoing season, scoring 90 runs in five innings at an average of 45 and a strike rate of 134.32. 

Veer was bought for a huge amount of INR 14.20 crore by the five-time champions but he hasn’t been able to prove his mettle.

Kris Srikkanth said on his YouTube Channel, “If they scored 200, they would have surely won this game. When all the other teams are scoring 200 for fun, CSK have hardly scored 200 four to five times this season. Dewald Brevis finally played a good knock after ages. But after that came Prashant Veer. I can’t understand how CSK are trusting him and playing him.”

Srikkanth also questioned Shivam Dube for his ordinary performances in the ongoing season and reckons MS Dhoni could have played instead of Prashant Veer.

He added, “Dube rarely hits anything big. He does it once or twice only when a spinner bowls. When he hits one six, he gets hyped up. But the medium pacers easily shut him off with short deliveries. Dhoni could have played instead of Prashant Veer. They keep saying he is not fit.”

Srikkanth reckons CSK batters gave too much respect to Shivang Kumar, who returned with impressive figures of 0-20 in three overs. 

“The CSK batters respected Shivang Kumar too much. They should have smashed him for a couple of maximums. They never even tried to smash him. CSK batters don’t try to put pressure on bowlers,” said Srikkanth (via the aforementioned source).

CSK will next take on Gujarat Titans at Narendra Modi Stadium, Ahmedabad, on Thursday.