New Delhi : Chennai Super Kings (CSK) created history on Monday night, defeating Gujarat Titans (GT) by five wickets to lift the IPL 2023 title and become record-equalling IPL winners for the fifth time in their history. One man has been instrumental in the turnaround of CSK from last season – where they finished second-last and failed to qualify for the Playoffs stage and that is their skipper MS Dhoni.
The former India captain and wicketkeeper is 41 years of age now and at every single match in IPL 2023, Dhoni has been given thunderous ovations with people expecting this to be his farewell season. There was much speculation from game one of IPL 2023 season around Dhoni’s retirement date but the CSK skipper has provided some great news to his fans after the final.
Dhoni indicated to commentator Harsha Bhogle in the post-match presentation that he will be open to coming back to lead CSK for at least one more season. “If you circumstantially see, it’s the best time to announce the retirement. The easy thing for me to say is thank you and retire,” Dhoni said at the post-match presentation.
“But the hard thing to do is to work hard for nine months and try to play one more IPL season. The body has to hold up. But the amount of love I have received from CSK fans, it would be a gift for them to play one more season. The way they’ve shown their love and emotion, it’s something I need to do for them,” he added.
Dhoni, who became the first cricketer to play in 250 matches in IPL, admitted that this is the ‘last part of his career’. “It’s the last part of my career. It started over here and the full house was chanting my name. It was my same thing in Chennai, but it will be good to come back and play whatever I can. The kind of cricket I play, they feel they can play that cricket,” the CSK skipper said.
“There’s nothing orthodox about it and I like to keep it simple. I think every trophy or bilateral series you win, it has its own challenges. When it comes to the crunch, you need to have your individuals ready. The amount of pressure every individual can deal with is different. We tried to do that,” he added.
Dhoni went on to reveal how he deals with different members in the CSK team. “Ajinkya (Rahane) is experienced, but if they (youngsters) are confused we chat with them. The special thing about (Ambati) Rayudu if he’s on the field he always gives his 100 per cent. We played for India ‘A’ together – he played spin and fast bowlers equally well. I felt always he will do something special. He’s also like me who doesn’t use a phone a lot,” Dhoni said about Rayudu, who retired from IPL after the 2023 final.
Bureau Report
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