Chennai Super Kings' legendary player Mahendra Singh Dhoni on Thursday "handed" over the captaincy to opener Ruturaj Gaikwad on the eve of the IPL opener, a stunning decision that is bound to send speculation swirling on his playing future with the franchise. (More Cricket News)
In a post on X, the Indian Premier League made the announcement a day before CSK take on Royal Challengers Bangaluru. The five-time champions issued a brief statement soon after.
"MS Dhoni has handed over Chennai Super Kings' captaincy to Ruturaj Gaikwad ahead of the start of TATA 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 CSK.
Advertisement
Gaikwad, who has played six ODIs and 19 T20s for India, made his CSK debut in 2020 and has gone on to represent the team in 52 games.
The stylish opener had a memorable run last year, aggregating 590 runs in 16 games at an impressive strike rate of 147.50. His breakout year was 2021 when he amassed 635 runs in 16 games.
Talking about Dhoni, the veteran has played as many as 250 IPL matches, scoring more than 5000 runs at a strike rate of 135.92.
Advertisement
After leading CSK to their record-equalling fifth IPL title last year, 'Captain Cool' claimed that he won't be hanging up his boots just yet.
“If you see circumstantially this is the best time for me to announce retirement,” Dhoni had said in a post-match interview post the IPL 2023 Final.
“But the amount of love and affection I’ve been shown wherever I’ve been this year, the easy thing for me would be to say, ‘Thank you very much’. But the tough thing for me is to work hard for another nine months and come back and play at least one more season of IPL,” he added.
With MSD relinquishing his captaincy, let's take a look at this incredible feat as the skipper of Chennai Super Kings:
Dhoni holds the record for captaining the most number IPL matches - 226.
Dhoni is also the record-holder for the most number of IPL wins as a captain - 133.
He has led the Chennai franchise in 212 matches and won 128, lost 82 with two games amounted to No Result.
Moreover, he has also led CSK to two led (now defunct) Champions League T20 titles in 2010 and 2014.
He is the joint record-holder alongside Rohit Sharma with the most number of IPL titles - 5. Those came in 2010, 2011, 2018, 2021 and 2023.
Advertisement
(With PTI inputs)
