Summary of this article
Calf injury has kept MS Dhoni away from Chennai Super Kings' playing XI in IPL 2026
Bowling coach Eric Simons says update on Dhoni "way above my pay grade"
CSK face Delhi Capitals in their next game
Chennai Super Kings bowling coach Eric Simons on Monday said that MS Dhoni has not travelled for the away game against Delhi Capitals in New Delhi, though he is steadily improving while being yet to play a game this season due to a calf injury.
More than half the season is done with CSK set to play their 10th game in what has been an underwhelming campaign. Like every season since his international retirement, there is immense speculation over the future of the 44-year-old Indian great in the IPL.
In the pre-match interaction, it was a hardly a surprise that the first question was on Dhoni, who has been batting in the nets of late.
"Update on MS Dhoni is way above my pay grade. He's not with us (in Delhi), but steadily improving. He'll be ready when he's ready, and he knows when he's ready to play," that was all Simons had to say on the team icon.
Talking about the performance of the bowlers, he was all praise for Anshul Kamboj, who has impressed in all phase of the game and is the joint highest wicket-taker with 17 scalps.
"Anshul went away. Anshul you see today is not this season, he started last year. The things that we worked on, he went into the domestic season and worked on different angles of approach to the crease to be more accurate with his yorkers in particular. We've introduced round the wicket, which is no secret now.
"There's a lot of nuances to what we're doing around the wicket that make him particularly effective. He's picked up wickets and been able to restrict the run rate as well. But I think what it really boils down to is his professionalism, the way that he trains," Simons said.
"If you stood next to me and watched the way that he trains, the way that he understands what he's going to do, the simplicity I spoke about, the clarity, I think in the modern game a bowler needs to be clear about what he wants to do. He's very clear about his tactics, and he's very clear about what his field setting is. There's no grey area for him," added Simons.
With four wins from nine matches, CSK find themselves in a must-win situation for the remainder of the five league matches. They come into Delhi having comprehensively beaten Mumbai Indians. Simons remains confident that his team can still make the play-offs from their existing situation.
"There has become a bit of a gap between the top four and the rest, but we still have our destiny in our own hands and we do know that we can beat any team in the league. So if we keep playing to our potential, there's no reason why we can't be on the top of the table. When we play well, we look really unbeatable," he said.
