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Dhoni’s IPL playing future remains a talking point ahead of the IPL auction. (PC: X.com)
Chennai Super Kings are relaxed over the MS Dhoni situation, as they wait to hear from their former captain. Dhoni’s IPL playing future remains a matter of speculation. Whatever he decides, his franchise will accept that.
“We haven’t heard anything from him (Dhoni) yet,” a top CSK official told RevSportz. “But we are in no hurry. We never ask him. He will inform us at the right time.”
The IPL teams would go into a mega auction next term. The team owners had a meeting with the IPL Governing Council to discuss retention policy, Impact Player rule and other issues. A story was doing the rounds that CSK had asked the IPL to reintroduce the old uncapped player rule. The franchise official denied that.
“We haven’t requested it,” he said. As per the rule, players who have retired from international cricket for five years or more can be considered as uncapped. It had been in place since the inaugural IPL season in 2008 before being abolished in 2021. A reintroduction of the rule, which appears a possibility, would allow CSK to treat Dhoni as an uncapped player, for he played his last international game in 2019. Before the 2022 mega auction, teams were allowed to retain two uncapped players that were separate to capped player retention.
Dhoni has a mind of his own and as expected, he is tight-lipped on his playing future. “There’s a lot of time left for the franchises and management to decide on the retention rules and everything,” he had said at a recent event. “At the end of the day, we will have to take a decision which is best for CSK, and that is the ultimate goal.”
The 43-year-old relinquished CSK captaincy before the start of the 2024 IPL. He scored 161 runs from 11 innings at an average of 53.66 and a strike-rate of 220.54. However, he faced just 73 balls and some experts criticised him for batting far too low down the order. But CSK head coach Stephen Fleming spoke about managing the senior player’s workload.
“We are managing his workload,” Fleming told reporters during the IPL. “It’s risky, and we have seen that early on in the season with a little bit of muscle injury, that if he bats too long, we run the risk of losing him.” Dhoni also had a knee surgery after the 2023 campaign.
As for Ruturaj Gaikwad, this year’s tournament was a learning process for the team’s new captain. And although the five-time champions failed to qualify for the playoffs this term, the franchise considered the mitigating factors.
“We lost some key players due to injuries,” CSK chief executive Kasi Viswanathan told RevSportz after the IPL. “It’s not that we are going to win every year,” he had said, informing that a radical overhaul via the 2025 mega auction was not on the agenda.
It is learnt that irrespective of his playing future, Dhoni would firmly be a part of CSK’s auction strategy.
The post CSK wait to hear from MS Dhoni appeared first on Sports News Portal | Latest Sports Articles | Revsports.
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[[{“value”:”Chennai Super Kings are relaxed over the MS Dhoni situation, as they wait to hear from their former captain. Dhoni’s IPL playing future remains a matter of speculation. Whatever he…
The post CSK wait to hear from MS Dhoni appeared first on Sports News Portal | Latest Sports Articles | Revsports.”}]]
