Mahendra Singh Dhoni “handed” over the Chennai Super Kings (CSK) captaincy to opener Ruturaj Gaikwad on Thursday, ahead of the 2024 Indian Premier League (IPL).
MS Dhoni stepped down from captaincy in his trademark style, without anyone knowing that he would do so.
CSK CEO Kasi Viswanathan even revealed that he himself did not know that Dhoni would be relinquishing leadership.
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“Whatever Dhoni does, it is in the best interest of the team. I got to know of the decision just before the captains’ meeting. You have to respect his decision, it is his call,” CSK CEO Kasi Viswanathan was quoted as saying by PTI.
CSK had attempted the leadership transition even in the 2022 edition but it did not work out with Ravindra Jadeja handing back the captaincy duties to Dhoni after eight games.
“It didn’t work out at that time, this is different,” Viswanathan added.
“MS Dhoni has handed over Chennai Super Kings’ captaincy to Ruturaj Gaikwad ahead of the start of TATA IPL 2024. Ruturaj has been an integral part of Chennai Super Kings since 2019 and has played 52 matches in IPL during this period. The team looks forward to the upcoming season,” CSK’s official statment read.
Gaikwad, who has played six ODIs and 19 T20s for India, made his CSK debut in 2020 and has gone on to represent the team in 52 games.
The stylish opener had a memorable run last year, aggregating 590 runs in 16 games at an impressive strike rate of 147.50. His breakout year was 2021 when he amassed 635 runs in 16 games.
The 27-year-old from Maharashtra is not new to captaincy, having led the Indian team to the gold medal in the Asian Games last year.
As for the 42-year-old MSD, who played with a dodgy knee last season, underwent a surgery after leading CSK to their fifth title.
Dhoni has played as many as 250 IPL matches, scoring more than 5000 runs at a strike rate of 135.92.
Due to his knee issues, Dhoni pushed himself down to number 8 in the batting order last season but after regaining full fitness, he is expected to bat higher up this edition.
Former India pacer Irfan Pathan met Dhoni recently and claimed that the latter appears to be in good shape following the knee surgery.
(With inputs from Agencies)
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