Fact Check: MS Dhoni Sacked As Chennai Super Kings Captain
New Delhi: Chennai Super Kings have announced Ruturaj Gaikwad as the sucessor of MS Dhoni ahead of the Indian Premier League 2024 inaugural clash against Royal Challengers Bengaluru which will be played at MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai.
Soon after CSK announced their new captain, fans got angry and started claiming that Dhoni as been sacked as a captain, a lot of social media posts also started saying that CSK sacked Dhoni.
However, when India.com looked into the matter we found out that this is fake news, it was Dhoni who handed over the captaincy to Gaikwad and even CSK CEO got to know about this decision just before the captain’s photoshoot.
“I got to know about the captaincy handover decision of MS Dhoni just before the captain’s photoshoot” said CSK CEO Kasi Viswanathan.
The franchise also gave a statement where they revealed that it was Dhoni who gave his role to Gaikwad.
“M.S. Dhoni has handed over Chennai Super Kings’ captaincy to Ruturaj Gaikwad ahead of the start of IPL 2024. Ruturaj has been an integral part of Chennai Super Kings since 2019 and has played 52 matches in IPL during this period. The team looks forward to the upcoming season,” said the franchise in a statement on its official website.
This will only be just the second time that M.S. Dhoni will not start an IPL season as skipper of CSK after Ravindra Jadeja was named the captain in IPL 2022, only for him to be replaced by the legendary wicketkeeper-batter after eight matches in the season.
It also brings an end to Dhoni’s long stint as captain of CSK, which began in the first season back in 2008 and resulted in five trophy-winning campaigns, barring the 2016 and 2017 seasons when the franchise was suspended in the wake of the 2013 spot-fixing scandal.
Overall, Dhoni has led CSK in 212 IPL matches, winning 128 games, while losing 82 matches. On March 4, Dhoni posted a cryptic comment on his social media accounts saying, “Can’t wait for the new season and the new ‘role’. Stay tuned!”
Now, the meaning of that post has been made clear with Gaikwad’s appointment as captain. Gaikwad was the Orange Cap winner in 2021 with 635 runs in 16 matches, when CSK won its fourth title. He then made 590 runs in 16 matches in CSK’s fifth title win in the 2023 season.
CSK Squad IPL 2024: MS Dhoni (c), Moeen Ali, Deepak Chahar, Devon Conway, Tushar Deshpande, Shivam Dube, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Rajvardhan Hangargekar, Ravindra Jadeja, Ajay Mandal, Mukesh Choudhary, Matheesha Pathirana, Ajinkya Rahane, Shaik Rasheed, Mitchell Santner, Simarjeet Singh, Nishant Sindhu, Prashant Solanki, Maheesh Theekshana, Rachin Ravindra, Shardul Thakur, Daryl Mitchell, Sameer Rizvi, Mustafizur Rahman, Avanish Rao Aravelly. MS Dhoni Hands Over CSK Captaincy To Gaikwad: Was This The “New Role” Teased By MSD?