Former India captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni said on Friday that he will “definitely” play in the next season of the Indian Premier League. Not doing so would be ‘unfair’ towards the city from which Chennai Super Kings got their name and the city which considers them their own. Along with this, 40-year-old Dhoni also put an end to the speculation about his play in this lucrative T20 league next year.
During the toss of the final match of the current season of Super Kings against Rajasthan Royals, Dhoni said, “Definitely I will play next year. It would be unfair to say no to Chennai, not to play in Chennai. This is not going to be a good treatment for Super Kings fans. He said, “Whether 2023 will be my last year or not, we have to see.” There is no dearth of fans of former Indian captain Dhoni in Tamil Nadu. Some time ago a post went viral on social media, in which one of his fans was painting his house in Cuddalore, Tamil Nadu in Chennai Super Kings yellow color and had Dhoni’s pictures on the wall.
Bad season for Chennai – Dhoni’s reply to a letter from a disappointed Super Kings fan two days ago won the hearts of the people. The ongoing IPL season has been one of the worst campaigns for the four-time champions Super Kings and the team was knocked out of the race for the playoffs long back. The current season was not very good for most of the senior players like Dhoni (206 runs), Ambati Rayudu (271) and Robin Uthappa (230) of the Super Kings, which was the main reason for the team’s failure. Apart from this, the team also missed the injured fast bowler Deepak Chahar and the team failed to add Josh Hazlewood as well.
Ravindra Jadeja to play from Chennai next year – Another good news for CSK fans is that star all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja will be back in the yellow jersey next year. Jadeja was handed the captaincy at the start of IPL 2022 and then handed the captaincy back to Dhoni to focus on his game.
Then Jadeja was ruled out of the tournament due to injury. In such a situation, reports came that all is not well between him and the franchise. Jadeja was unfollowed by CSK on Instagram, fueling the rumours. Now according to a report in ESPNcricinfo, he will also be a part of the Chennai camp in IPL 2023, which is a good news for the fans of the franchise.