MS Dhoni Steps Down As Chennai Super Kings Captain After 16 Years

Probably the moat successful captain in modern-day cricket, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, has stepped down as skipper of Chennai Super Kings as he handed over the mantle to fellow teammate Ruturaj Gaikwad.

The 42-year-old has been captain of the franchise since the inception of IPL in 2008 and was replaced only for a brief period in IPL during the 2022 season.

Last year, Dhoni underwent knee surgery and returned after a grueling rehabilitation period winning the Indian Premier League for the fifth time as captain of CSK.

The legendary Indian skipper has led two franchises since the IPL’s inception, Rising Pune Supergiant and Chennai Super Kings. After Chennai got banned from IPL for two seasons (2016) and (2017), Dhoni took up the responsibilities as captain for Pune.

He helped Chennai reach the final of the IPL four times in a row, from 2010 to 2013, and 10 times overall in the history of the IPL.

In the list of captains who have led teams in 20 or more IPL matches, only Hardik Pandya and Steve Smith have bettered the win-loss ratio of Dhoni’s mercurial figure of 1.461 in the IPL.

After the victorious campaign last season, it was expected that he would retire from IPL but after the final game, he vowed to make a comeback for one more season if his body allowed it.

Earlier this month he joined Chennai’s Preseason camp in IPL and he will act as a guiding figure throughout the campaign for the new skipper Ruturaj Gaikwad.

Gaikwad has played 52 matches and scored 1,797 runs for his franchise and he is the seventh-highest run scorer in Chennai’s list of most prolific batters. The new season will be a true test of his abilities and it will be interesting to see how Chennai performs this year.