Chennai Super Kings’ CEO, KS Viswanathan has confirmed that former India skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni (ms dhoni) will lead the side in the 2023 IPL. “Obviously everybody knows that Thalaivan (MSD) is the one who is going to lead the side and he will do his best and the team will do well,” he said a day after announcing CSK’s retained and released players ahead of the 2023 IPL auction.
CSK struggled immensely under Jadeja in IPL 2022 who in turn struggled under the captaincy burden. Dhoni had later taken over the role for the second half of the season. But will the legendary cricketer continue to lead the side?
Chennai Super Kings were troubled with their captaincy decision in the 2022 edition of the Indian Premier League which remained one of the key reason behind their yet another forgettable season where they had finished ninth in the points table with just four wins in 14 matches, standing above bottom-placed Mumbai Indians only by virtue of a relatively better net run rate. CSK had picked Ravindra Jadeja as captain with MS Dhoni stepping away from the role. But the defending champions struggled immensely under the skipper who in turn struggled under the captaincy burden. Dhoni had later taken over the role for the second half of the season. But will the legendary cricketer continue to lead the side?
CSK CEO Kasi Vishwanathan on Sunday made a massive revelation on the franchise’s captain for the 2023 season as he admitted that Dhoni, who led Chennai to four IPL trophy victories, will continue as the skipper of the team.
“There is no change in our stance. We never said that there will be a change,” Kasi told InsideSport in an interview.
In the previous season, Dhoni had shocked fans with his decision to step down from the leadership on the eve of the start of IPL 2022, as CSK named Jadeja as the new captain. The franchise, along with Dhoni had revealed that the all-rounder was made aware of the decision at the end of the 2021 season. But the team managed only a solitary win in the first eight games under his captaincy leaving Chennai at the bottom of the table amid his poor run of form with the bat and with the ball.
Jadeja eventually decided to remove himself from the role to focus on his game and handed over the duties to Dhoni again.
“I think Jadeja knew last season he’d be captaining this year. For the first two games, I oversaw his work,” Dhoni said explaining the reason behind the captain change. “After that, I insisted he took his own decisions and responsibility for them. At the end of the season, you don’t want him to feel that the captaincy was done by someone else, and I’m just going for the toss. So it was a gradual transition.
“Spoon-feeding doesn’t help a captain, on the field you have to take those crucial decisions and you have to take responsibility for those decisions.
Once you become captain, it means a lot of demands come in. What I felt was it was affecting his game, because I would love to have a Jadeja as a bowler, batter and a fielder. Even if you relieve captainship and if you are at your best, that’s what we want,” he added.
