Dhoni continue playing despite leaving the captaincy?

Dhoni continue playing despite leaving the captaincy?

Will continue playing despite stepping down from captaincy; Had said in 2023- will play in Chennai for the last time

MS Dhoni took retirement from international cricket in 2020.

This could be the last IPL of former Chennai Super Kings captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni. He surprised everyone and left the captaincy a day before the start of the tournament. Before the opening ceremony, Ruturaj Gaikwad arrived as the captain of CSK in his place in the captain's photoshoot.

IPL management confirmed that Gaikwad will captain CSK this season in place of Dhoni. Despite leaving the captaincy, Dhoni will continue playing. However, there is now speculation that this could be 42-year-old Dhoni's last IPL season.

Mahi had said- will play the last match in Chepauk

Dhoni had said last season itself that he would play the last match of his career at Chepauk Stadium in Chennai. Last season, Chennai played its last match at Narendra Modi Stadium in Gujarat. Which was also the final of the tournament. CSK won it but since the match was not held in Chepauk, Dhoni decided to remain with the team for one more season.

Now CSK team will play the first match of the tournament in Chepauk. The match will be against RCB, which could also be the last IPL match of Dhoni's career. However, after the injury of Devon Conway, Dhoni can now continue playing some more matches.

Had Conway played, Dhoni would have definitely retired early.

New Zealand's Devon Conway has been opening for CSK for the last 2 seasons and he is a very successful opener. He got injured before the tournament started, now he will not be able to return till the first week of May.

Conway also does wicketkeeping along with batting and Dhoni is also a wicketkeeper batsman. That means, if Conway had remained fit, CSK would not have needed Dhoni for wicketkeeping. But now Conway is injured and apart from him, uncapped Avnish Rao Araveli is the only wicketkeeper in the team. Who has not made his IPL debut yet.

Araveli can definitely play some matches but due to lack of experience, it is difficult to get a chance in all the matches. In such a situation, even if Dhoni wants to take retirement after the first match, it will be a difficult decision considering the situation of the team.

Retirement possible even with the last match of the league stage

Looking at the current conditions, there is a chance that Dhoni may bid goodbye to cricket in the league stage with the last match to be played at Chepauk Stadium. When will be the last match in Chepauk, it will be clear only after the complete schedule is announced. However, if CSK reaches the playoffs or finals and these matches are held in Chennai, then Dhoni can definitely decide to play till the playoffs.

CSK has changed captain in 2022 also

Ruturaj Gaikwad is the fourth captain of CSK. Before him, Ravindra Jadeja captained CSK in 8 matches and Suresh Raina in 5 matches. Raina took command in those matches only when Dhoni could not captain due to injury or any other reason. While Jadeja was made the captain before the start of the 2022 season, he took command in 8 matches but the team could win only 2 matches.

Jadeja decided to step down from the captaincy mid-season and Dhoni then took the reins of CSK. Despite Dhoni's captaincy in the 2022 season, the team lost 4 out of the last 6 matches. The team stood at 9th position that season with 4 points with 10 losses out of 14. Now CSK once again handed over the responsibility of the team to the new captain in place of Dhoni before the start of the season. In such a situation, it will be important to see how the team performs.

Dhoni is the only captain to win 100 IPL matches

MS Dhoni is the most successful captain in IPL history. He captained 226 IPL matches and led the team to victory in 133. Under his captaincy, CSK won 5 titles, in this case former MI captain Rohit Sharma is also the number-1 captain by winning 5 titles. However, Rohit has also not been able to win more than 100 IPL matches for the team under his captaincy.

Dhoni has played 250 IPL matches as a player. In these he scored 5082 runs at a strike rate of 135.92. Dhoni hit 24 fifties and 84 runs was his best score, which was made against RCB only. CSK will play its first match against this team today in the 17th season.

Dhoni took international retirement in 2020

MS Dhoni took retirement from international cricket in 2020 itself. On August 15, 2020, at 7:29 pm, Mahi had announced his retirement through a social media post. He is the only captain to make India win the ICC Champions Trophy (2013), ODI World Cup (2011) and T-20 World Cup (2007) under his captaincy.

 

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