Defending champions Chennai Super Kings will play the IPL 2024 opener against Royal Challengers Bangalore at Chennai.
The news about MS Dhoni’s retirement is always trending during an IPL season in the past few years. But to everyone’s surprise, the 42-year-old has found a way to be in the tournament till now. It is yet not clear whether IPL 2024 will be Dhoni’s last season or not.
Last year, Dhoni managed a knee injury while taking Chennai Super Kings to their fifth IPL trophy. After the season, he underwent the surgery and is now fit to play this season. He has already started the training sessions for CSK, held at M.A. Chidambaram Stadium, Chepauk.
The CSK franchise is working on Dhoni’s successor for some time now. While talking to S Badrinath in his YouTube show, CSK CEO Kasi Viswanathan revealed team owner N Srinivasan’s take on this matter.
“See, there have been internal talks. But, Mr. Srinivasan has made it very clear. Let’s not talk about captain and vice-captain appointments. Let’s leave it to the coach and the captain to decide. Let them decide and convey the information to me, and then I will convey it to you all. He has said that ‘the captain and the coach will decide and give us a directive, till then let’s all keep quiet’,” Kasi Viswanathan said.
The message is very clear that it will be the decision of coach and captain about Dhoni’s successor. There are many promising young talents who can be the frontrunners to lead the side.
Viswanathan also revealed CSK’s plans for the upcoming season. Last season, they defeated Gujarat Titans in a nail-biter in the final to lift the trophy for the record fifth time.
“We have always focused on qualifying for the knockouts. That’s our first aim. After that, it depends on the performance on that day. We are following that even now. Before every season, MS Dhoni tells us ‘first let us concentrate on league games. We will look to qualify for the knockouts’. Yes, the pressure is there. But over the years, because of our consistency, most of the players are used to this pressure,” he mentioned.
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CSK gave the captaincy to Ravindra Jadeja at the start of IPL 2022 as Jadeja was seen as the future captain of the franchise. But a series of poor results and poor form forced Jadeja to quit the captaincy and give it back to Dhoni. Since then, CSK has been looking for other captaincy options to replace Dhoni.
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