After much anticipation, Dhoni has confirmed his availability for next season.
Five-time Indian Premier League (IPL) winners Chennai Super Kings announced their retained players list for the upcoming season (IPL 2025) a few days back.
Notably, after much anticipation, former franchise skipper and icon MS Dhoni confirmed his availability for IPL 2025 and CSK retained him for INR 4 crores under the uncapped player quota.
Now, ahead of the next edition, former Australia star and new Punjab Kings (PBKS) coach Ricky Ponting has shed light on the possible role of MS Dhoni.
Dhoni, who is in the twilight of his career, improvised his role last season when he came out to bat in the death overs and took the bowlers to the cleaners. In 14 matches, Dhoni slammed 161 runs at a blistering strike rate of 220.55. While Dhoni’s batting position has moved lower down the order, his impact is the same.
Echoing on the same lines, Ponting outlined while speaking to ICC review,
“Two seasons ago he probably had his worst season, but then last year again, he bounced back into really impacting some games like the MS Dhoni of old,” Ponting said.
“I think it will be exactly the same now…they might not get him through the whole season. They might think about leaving him out for a game and resting him up here and there to make sure that they’re getting the best out of him.”
Speaking about CSK’s retentions, apart from Dhoni, the Chennai-based outfit decided to retain four more players. Their top retentions were premier all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja and new skipper Ruturaj Gaikwad at INR 18 crore. Shivam Dube and Matheesha Pathirana were the other two players to make the cut at INR 12 crore and INR 13 crore respectively.
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