The Indian Premier League (IPL) is awaiting the return of MS Dhoni in the Chennai Super Kings colours. Last time, the former Indian cricket team captain donned the jersey, the CSK became the IPL champion for a record-equalling fifth time. While many speculated that MS Dhoni was going to retire after the IPL 2023, he announced after CSK's final win that he will continue to play for the love he has been showered with.
After the IPL 2023, MS Dhoni underwent a knee surgery. Recently, videos of his training for the IPL 2024 went viral. On Monday, MS Dhoni had an interesting update on his Facebook account. "Can't wait for the new season and the new 'role'. Stay tuned!" he wrote.
It is not clear whether the new season mentioned is the IPL 2024 edition. Anyways, with Dhoni saying he will have a 'new role', the post went viral in minutes.
The post started speculation on whether MS Dhoni will be coaching or not.
"Hope you will be coaching this season," wrote one user in the comments section of the post.
"New 'role' means? Are you gonna work as Mentor too?" wrote another.
One user event speculated about retirement. "I am pretty sure, Chennai Super Kings is going to announce a new caption for the team. And, retirement is near,"
Chennai Super Kings' pre-season camp got underway on Saturday in the presence of pacer Deepak Chahar, who will be eyeing a national comeback through a consistent run for his franchise in the IPL beginning March 22. "The first batch of local (Indian) players arrived on Friday and more are expected to arrive in the coming days," a Tamil Nadu Cricket Association (TNCA) official told PTI. On Friday, CSK confirmed the arrival of the first batch of players in the city and they included Simarjeet Singh (pacer), Rajvardhan Hangargekar (all-rounder), Mukesh Choudhary (pacer), Prashant Solanki (spinner), Ajay Mandal (all-rounder) and Deepak Chahar (seamer).
Notably, Chahar has not played any form of cricket since last December when he pulled out of the T20 series against Australia midway before skipping the tour of South Africa due to his father's illness.
However, he declared himself fully fit last month while training at the National Cricket Academy (NCA) in Bengaluru. The injury-prone pacer is eyeing a comeback to the national side for the T20 World Cup scheduled in the Caribbean and the USA in June.
Fan-favourite and team skipper MS Dhoni's arrival is yet to be confirmed. He was spotted with his wife Sakshi in Jamnagar on Friday when he attended the pre-wedding function of Anant Ambani, the youngest son of Indian business tycoon Mukesh Ambani.
CSK open their IPL 2024 campaign versus Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) on March 22.
With PTI inputs